Technology, where would we be without it. Today, everything is either an i"Thingy" or a tablet or an e-Reader. Book, you know those things printed on paper, that you read..........they are so yesterday.
However, even with all this technology within our grasps, it is not being fully utilized. That is my point for today. Schools, Colleges, Universities and Technical Schools - need to embrace the technology advantage. What am I speaking about? Good question. e-Readers and e-Books; especially e-Textbooks. A large expense to any institution is the required textbooks and associated reference materials. Solution: e-Readers and e-Textbooks.
A good e-Reader is less than $200 per unit. A good science text book is $200. Text books are expensive because they are hard covered, colour printed, large format and have lots of pages. Oh, and the material changes every 3 to 5 years so they need to be replaced.
A good e-Reader, can be loaded with all the text books, they can be updated midway through the semester or school year, and even the reference books can be uploaded. If tablets are used, the e-Textbooks could be loaded AND the assignments can be completed and e-mailed to the instructor and the marked and graded "papers" can be e-mailed back tot he student.
So, for the sake of the argument, using e-Textbooks on e-Readers + a tablet, a student could have EVERYTHING they need for academic courses that would fit in a medium sized briefcase. Currently, to carry all the textbooks, binders, pens, pencils, calculators, etc, etc. You need a large duffle bag and very strong arms and back to carry it all.
This would be a win, win, win solution for all.
For the school/institution: Cost effective e-Readers and reduce expenses on textbooks. Not to mention the ability to have the most current source materials, and rapid updates.
For textbook industry: No longer need to focus on limiting the textbook, to keep it competitive. Now the best materials can be assembled, complete with colour photos and graphs/charts. Master copies would be loaded onto flashdrives and couriered to the schools. The schools would upload onto their e-Readers. Price per text book could be reduced and profits would still increase. And schools would be asking for updates.
For the students: The one who would benefit the most. Less stuff to carry. Information being provided in a format kids understand. It would make learning fun, again.
So, before technology is used by somebody else, let's encourage the education system to get with the times and use the technology to make a positive difference instead of whining about how kids don't want to learn.
Keep learning and thinking,
Mountainman.
No comments:
Post a Comment