Here is the reality. Textbook companies are there to make money. They all offer reduced textbook rates for their ebooks, but there is a catch. The $15 book that you bought only lasts you one year. You have to spend another $15 the next year for the same book (albeit updated we hope) for another student. We were on a 5-7 year cycle for printed textbooks that cost us $60-$85. That is $85 over 7 years. Spending a small amount every year cost us almost the same money!
Here is the big idea. WRITE OUR OWN!
If I had my wish I would get about 15 of us science teachers (or math or whatever) together for a week in the summer. We would sit down with the new standards, our labs, ideas, and technology and develop a curriculum that was actually made by teachers with activities that work and are malleable and scale-able to different classes. We then meet periodically throughout the year to go over what is working or not and make changes.
Here are some of the specifics I was looking at.
- The text would include various technologies... text, video, animation, activities, and problems integrated into the materials.
- It needs to be usable on numerous devices (iPad, Chromebook, computer, etc)
- It needs to be free for all to use
- It needs to be based on some kind of sound fundamental teaching principles (inquiry, modeling, learning cycle, a mix??)
- It needs to cover the standards that students are being measured against.