As I was planning my fall sections of EDU221, Introduction to Education, in the summer of 2007, I was not excited about using my adopted textbook, but I also knew that most of the texts appropriate for the course were similar. They were all huge, heavy, and expensive tomes that had a lot of information that was out of date before the book was even published. For example, the statistics about special education enrollments in a text published in 2008 came from 2004. If I was still using this text in 2010, the statistics would be six years old. It was frustrating to me, so I planned on providing website addresses to my students so that they could find current information about a number of topics.
About this time, I received an e-mail from a fledgling company called National Social Science Press. It was an invitation to faculty to construct digital text books for courses that they were already teaching; to personalize the learning instrument, and perhaps even market it to other instructors. I emailed the contact person and said that I was interested, but that the text that I envisioned did not have a lot of content, and would be more of a workbook. He told me to go for it.
Teaching in the community college, we all know that one of our tasks is to help our students become independent learners. One way that I do this in my education classes at Central Arizona College is to teach courses through hybrid modality. We do meet almost every week, but usually for just a short period, an hour and a half at the most. Assignments are posted on Blackboard, our online platform, and students are forced to become independent learners and to budget time for their studies. Using the Internet to research topics and find information is required. My new text was going to add a new dimension to this independent and technology dependent learning emphasis.
I worked all summer to produce the text. It contained six sections 1) the introduction, 2) reflective journal topics, 3) observation assignments, 4) questions about education topics (history, etc), 5) current events, and 6) plans for the future. It covered everything in my course outline and objectives and most of the topics included in those heavy texts. I sent it to the publisher and he suggested that I add some YouTube videos to illustrate some of my sections. YouTube videos? At the time I wasn’t aware of how many quality videos about education are posted on YouTube. Now the digital text is full of them.
The CD-ROM has assignments that instruct the student to reflect on the practice of teaching, to conduct focused observations that teach students to be aware of how a good teacher organizes the classroom environment and lessons, and to discover the history and philosophies behind teaching structures and strategies. I include websites for students to visit that provide the most current information about educational issues, ideas, and history.
But how do my students react to the CD-ROM as a text? Reaction is mixed at the beginning of the semester. We are beginning our third semester with the digital text and we receive several kinds of comments. The following are actual student comments in response to the questions. “How do you like the digital text?” and “What do you think will be challenging?”
I like this online text, I think its great! This way if I need to go to a different house and do my homework there, I can just get on the internet! No big book to lug around. The only thing that I can see wrong with it, is that my CD didn't work :-( but I was able to get on the website!
The online text is interesting to me just because I've never had or heard of a textbook all on one disk. I like that just because it saves paper and is a completely new way of teaching and learning. One thing that will sort of be a challenge for me is that I am a really hands on person and not having the hard text there in front of me will be difficult to get used to.
I like the on-line text. It is very easy to navigate and much easier to carry around than a book. When I saw that this was the textbook I was surprised and relived at the same time. Light on the arms and in the pocketbook as well.
I like the online text. I like that it's easy to navigate and it’s not overwhelming. It is much easier to go through than a book and the videos are very helpful. The directions are very explanatory and the content is very helpful. I like that it is up to date and I don’t feel like I’m reading and ancient boring text book. One challenge for me would be that it’s online. You can’t just access it anywhere. The storm cut out my internet and I couldn’t even get on to look at the text. The pros outweigh the cons though. It being online does make it much cheaper and affordable.
The new CD-ROM is better than a text book for it allows me to just search the CD for the required information. Setting up the portfolio allows me to incorporate the information I learn from the CD and transferring it into my reflective journal or assignments quickly and efficiently. Another very cool ability is to just use everything from one computer to and not having to go from a book looking for the required text and than transferring it to the computer. However one thing i find difficult is having internet access always to my laptop, I seem to usually have difficulty having access at all times and that does not allow me to all that the CD offers such as the you tube videos.
With online textbooks I don't think i will know how I like it until we get more into the semester. I was sure happy not to have to pay much for it, but I enjoy having something I can highlight and take notes on. I will know in time how I enjoy having the online textbook.
The new online text is very different than what I am used to but offers a new way to learn the material being taught. One pro, and perhaps the most obvious is the cost, which is significantly cheaper than a regular text book. One thing that will be challenging about the new text book is the lack of information contained within it, which means finding it may be a bit more difficult than a regular text book.
I am not going to lie, I am an old fashion learner. I prefer the old fashion way of pulling out your text book and doing work no matter where you are. : ) With a book you don't need to have a computer accessible. On the other hand, I love the lower cost and all the videos and extra links that seem to be more hands on rather than just reading non stop.
I feel that by having a online textbook, the only real disadvantage will be, for me to learn how to use it. I am a little older and computers are not my favorite thing to use. That being said I feel that will it might take a little while to learn it, the textbook will definitely benefit me in the end by helping learn and use a computer more efficiently. I think we all know that computers are used in most every classroom now. So by learning this skill it can give me a lot more information to give to students. So overall I think this online textbook will benefit me greatly.
As you can see, most of the comments are positive, especially concerning the price and portability of the CD, and there are some worries, especially about computer failure. Everyone seems to appreciate the embedded videos and I find that they are especially helpful to my students with learning disabilities.
My evaluation of the text is positive. I really do think that the format encourages students to be independent learners as they must distinguish reliable websites from those that might be a bit suspect or biased. I do believe that future teachers need to be aware of the information explosion set in motion by access to the Internet, and further, to be able to shave the information down to manageable bits. They will be doing this as teachers in the years to come.
Marjorie Schiller is the Lead Faculty in Teacher Education at Central Arizona College in Pinal County, Arizona. Her digital text is “Becoming a Teacher: A Digital Workbook for Prospective Teachers”.
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