Death to the Textbook Companies!

Get out the pitchforks, warm up the torches and stir up the angry mob. It's time to go after the textbook companies.

Okay, I'm being a bit hyperbolic here but the last two workshops I've been to have touched on this. First, I went to a presentation by the tech director at Mooresville City Schools where they are implementing a 1:1 laptop program. One way they are going to pay for it is to stop doing textbook adoptions.

I'll repeat that and let it sink in a bit.

No new textbook adoptions.

That means they think they can come up with enough content to display on the laptops to make up for textbooks. I'm inclined to agree. There is just so much out there and so many ways for creative teachers to share their work.

The second session was by Karen Fasimpaur of K12 Handhelds. She discussed a number of tools and content sites. Things like Curriki and wikibooks might someday replace the textbooks that we all hate to have to buy. The free-reading project has even been recommended for adoption by Florida.

I feel good about the possibilities of this because teachers are well-known for sharing resources that they find and create. All we need to do is to get them to start sharing to a wider audience.

Now if any of you out there are muttering things about "Godless commies" and worrying about the death of capitalism, don't worry. Fasimpaur, along with many others, say that agile businesses will move to providing support and consultation services instead of software and content. Capitalism is safe still.