Textbook Sharing
Posted by Tyler Kinch on August 7th, 2006
I’ve been reading the opinion pieces in the Calgary Sun lately. (I know, I know, I shouldn’t. But it’s always offered to me at work, and I sometimes get a laugh out of reading it.)
There has been a lot of talk about how textbooks in Albertan schools are thrown out
each year as new ones come in. I think it’s great that we have the resources to get the most up to date textbooks in our schools; it’s great for our education system! However, if it is true that these books are thrown away (Could someone please confirm it, I emailed the Calgary Board Of Education one month ago an did not get any response.), I think they could be put to much better use.
Starting within the province, we could go to other school districts that may be strapped for cash, and offer to give them better text books. This could easily be done by setting up a database on the internet. Each time a school wants to replace its textbooks, it must place the ones they want to get rid of on an online database. Other schools then can view this database and if they need any of the text books they can request to have them. This would be a great way to improve our education system in Alberta and we would also be helping out the environment at the same time. And if the text books are so obsolete that no one wants them, then we can recycle them.
This does not just need to happen within the province of Alberta only though. I know that when I was in British Columbia, we were using text books from the 70’s/80’s. If provinces could trade with each other, this program would be even better.
Sometimes the solutions are simple.
August 7th, 2006 at 10:09 pm
I think it’s a good idea to do online databasing, it could give me a job!
Otherwise, I think it would be good… but every province uses different textbooks and course content, so you really can’t swap between provinces. Just interprovince would work really well.
August 7th, 2006 at 10:17 pm
Well, I think it would still be ok for swapping between provinces. I know that while attending High School in Both Alberta and BC, the textbooks never followed the curriculum (With a few exceptions) What I am saying is that, there would usually be about 3 different text books that we would use for one class. And the teacher would tell us what chapters to read and which ones not to read. So I think any text books that have some of the curriculum in it, would be greatly appreciated (The Curriculum isn’t that different between provinces. If something needs to be learned, the teacher will teach it. The text books in high school are just supplements to the actual teaching in my opinion and experience.)
August 8th, 2006 at 5:25 pm
Excellent idea!! When I first came across this headline, I assumed it referred to the notion of a databased that would supplant texts altogether. Gievn the fast paced world we live in, it IS almost impossible for teachers and students to keep up..
Of course, I do recognize the “digital divide”. How do families livong below the poverty line in Canada - or in this case Manitoba, manage to keep up with their peers. It is all well and good to note that we do have Access Centers and libraries - and how many parents actually supervise their child’s homework? -This may be a gopd reason for Bernard Lord to use in handing out laptops to teachers in a pilot program, some middle school aged students.
It would also be great for the envionment, save the wear and tear on books (Temember the books some of had yo tolerate in school!) and wouled minimize one of the problems often identified by educators in school - teachers who “teach from the text. - ie they follow the text to the letter and have dicciculty thinking for themselves and teaching criticl thinking to the students they are responsible for.
Think about it. (Of course I tend to read many books on my PDA - and PDA’s might be a better deal than laptops come to think of it (no games allowed though unless they are educational though Bubblet and Tetris are wonderful spacial ability instuctors!)