I have noticed a lot of people in the class have been posting their thoughts about computers in the classroom. I realize that it's pretty important not just because technology is all over the schools it's everywhere. My bank, school, and many other things are always encouraging me to go electronic and most of the time it really does make things a lot easier or efficient. I realize I live off my computer. I lost all my CD's a couple years ago and I have yet to replace any of them because my computer is a data base of more music then was on those 30-40 CDs. I remember there was a particular episode of Law and Order I wanted to see and I was able to download it off I tunes for pocket change. I think textbooks with technology incorporated materials are really important for this to work because books haven't been eliminated from the academic world and most college courses require textbooks. My fear would be kids leaving the school district or graduating and struggling in an environment that use mostly print texts.
I think at a young age computers will really show their benefits. Programs like Garageband and I-movie both extremely easy to use will spark children's imaginations more then ever. That spark could potentially raise these children into true pioneers of the future.
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Lots of people think that the "textbooks or computers" question is an all-or-nothing proposition. That is, most people think in terms of "are we going to use computers or are we going to use textbook." I don't know why we think that using computers will eliminate textbooks, although I do think that the nature of textbooks will change considerably. We see that happening already. Most textbook publishers create DVD or online versions of their texts, usually at a reduced cost. Some are even allowing students to buy specific relevant chapters of books rather than buying the entire volume. This article has some interesting stats on costs and availability of online text resources. Printing costs are enormous and consumptive of resources compared to CDs or web-based solutions.
Just as textbooks will change, so will the devices that we carry around to access them. Right now, the best tool is probably a laptop computer, but as wi-fi networks become more ubiquitous (and faster) we may find that iPods (or some similar device) works better as a reader or study guide. These are interesting times...
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