We don't need no stinkin' textbooks!

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

I've really been changing my educational philosophy in the past few years. For example, homework. When I first heard of the "no homework" movement, I thought "how crazy are those folks?" But, then I read the books and listened to the discussion. It makes sense to me now to NOT have homework. I've jumped on the bandwagon and even tried to take over the reigns with a recent NO HOMEWORK presentation to Education majors at St Charles Community College.

I recently heard about the Open Source textbook movement and how it is being applied to Community Colleges. I think in this age of ever rising textbook costs and constant edition revisions (without any substantial revisions), this is a great first step. But, the more I think about the more I wonder--why do we need textbooks? A college instructor could easily use a WIKI to create links to releveant articles (newspapers, journals). She could also create links to a relevant bibliography, perhaps even require reading of one or two of the books available in their library (or through MOBIUS).

While I still think reading is optimal to learning, I don't think it necessarily needs to be via a textbook.
posted by suzyjax on 8/20/2008 04:11:00 PM > 0 comments

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