Wiki created student/teacher texts

In May of 2006 I wrote a blog post which discussed the sad state of textbooks in public education. Today I am going to try to get down some of my ideas on how to fix this issue.

What if we no longer used traditonal textbooks?
-what are the benefits (cost savings,  more authentic texts, more varied content, content alligned to curriculum, etc)
-what are the costs (what will students use, where will it come from, how much will they cost, will it allign with the curriculum, how do students get them/use them, etc)

What is we had teachers and students build “textbooks” togther?  What if textbooks were no konger a thick hard-covered papaer book but a collection of electronic and paper resources created by teachers and students.

What if teachers and administrators used some/all of their PD days to prepare maetrials for students?  They could use web resources, existing texts, each other, etc.  They could publish this content online, as paper copies, via a blog or email or even a wiki.  Students and teachers could then add/modify these resources over the course of the year/years.

Advantages:
-Relevant (to curriculum) and easily modified content
-Up-to-date information
-Owned by teacher/students
-Potentially cheaper
-Lives on year to year
-Sharing with others
-Others can add (if wiki format)
…

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