| THE END OF THE TEXTBOOK? |
| 2009.06.10 16:36:56 | |
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Arnold Schwarzenegger has many guises but I never thought I would see him as the man who really transformed education. His latest proposal, albeit for a budget strapped California, is to do away with the text book and supply every child with a lap-top and access to on-line data. The rationale, apart from the obvious cost benefits, is that this will give access to a far broader range of up to date information and equip children more effectively for a digital world. Predictably this has produced howls of protest from academics and publishers and the usual smokescreen about children being given access to unsuitable and inaccurate material. Yet in a world where Googling is most people’s first resort for finding out about anything what is so wrong about the primary source of information being the web? My colleague Helen Honisett, who knows far more about e-education than I do, tells me that it is perfectly possible to shape the information available to children to their age and ability. What is so wrong with doing away with the text book? We did after all manage to move on from the clay tablet and papyrus scroll – no doubt to howls of protest from clay and rush merchants! Tags:
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