We’ve always thought textbooks have had their day, but this view has now been endorsed by no less than Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

From the beginning of the next school year in August, maths and science students in California’s high schools will have access to online texts that have passed an academic standards review, rather than buy any new textbooks.

‘Online teaching resources for maths and science texts that have passed an academic standards review’ … that sounds a bit like Teachable; and we include interactive whiteboard content as well.

The key reason is that textbooks are no longer thought to be good value for money. California spends approximately $350m on teaching resources, and is facing a big budget deficit – a bit like the UK. If education authorities are forced to cut either staff or textbooks, then most schools and parents would rather keep the staff. And that choice may soon come to the UK, which spends around £350m on equivalent materials.

So, although not all schools are equipped to make best use of fully online resources, the move towards Quality Assured online content is speeding up.

Textbooks are going. And no, they won’t Be Back.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 10th, 2009 at 11:07 am and is filed under ICT in education, UK teaching. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.