After viewing the You Tube video, “Joe’s Non-Netbook,” I felt l like I have had this student in my class, before but don’t worry I don’t hold grudges for too long. I find this video clip a little ironic when I look back at my experience with online textbooks vs. traditional textbooks. Every 7th grader at my school has a password to an online version of their science, math and social studies textbooks. At the beginning of the year students are shown the website, how to login and are given their passwords. So “Joe” from the video would presumably like our textbook where you can click on a picture and save it, or click a link or make the text bigger, however I find that come parent-teacher conferences I have to remind the parents of this resource and reissue usernames and passwords to the students. Also at a recent meeting with the high school in our district, the issue of online textbooks came up again. When surveying the entire 10th grade biology class, most students preferred to carry around a large hard copy of their textbook. It seems to me that this “Joe” may be a little ahead of his peers in the preferences in the technology department.
Don’t get me wrong I love using technology in my classroom whenever I can, why else would I be in this program. I just don’t think all of our learners, let’s make that a majority of our learners are ready to transition to the online textbook/webpage for a resource for their assignments.
P.S. Joe should probably take his hat off in the building before the administrator walks by.
Works Cited
Lehmann, C. (Director). (2009). Joe’s Non-Netbook [Motion Picture].
Brandi,
ReplyDeleteLoved your final comment... Very interesting that your district has taken the leap to online textbooks and students and parents have not jumped on the band wagon. Usually it is the other way around.
Since I deal with the youngest of our students I see them in their "technology infancy". They believe the computer IS real. I constantly remind students that the computer did not make a mistake, he or she told it to do something, or they told it something too many times and now the computer need time to think. It will be interesting as these students become more "hardwired" to read on the Internet, they may indeed become more receptive to using online text resource. On time will tell I think...