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Originally Posted by cheyennedonna
Up to date textbooks, with all pages intact, is just a dream for most of the schools today. Education cutbacks have affected all levels, from salaries to materials, in most schools. It is up to the educator to find a way to utilize resources available, from many sources.
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Hate to get all political here, but per-pupil spending in most non-rural districts has actually been rising over the past decade. The problem is administrative fat soaking up those increases and more; and administrators know that threatening to lay off teachers and cut extracurricular activities is an effective way to extort enough tax money to save their own bloated salaries and those of their colleagues.
But, teachers don't have a say in that, so I agree that working with the devices students have "for free" is an appealing way to stretch the actual classroom budget.
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Originally Posted by borisb
Going to school is much like going to the dentist - it's not meant to be "fun", but it *is* necessary and ultimately beneficial. Gadgets are much like the dentist's tools - I'd rather see a modern shiny stainless steel pick and drill than a rust scraper in my dentist's hand. A well equipped dentist's office makes going to the dentist much easier (and effective).
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Not sure how good that analogy is...the dentist's tools are going to be inserted into your mouth and possibly comingling with your blood, so there are concerns about how clean and precisely crafted they are that don't exist with classroom materials.
Maybe I'm just old school, but in my opinion if you can't learn algebra or trigonometry or calculus using a textbook written in 1900, you can't learn it period. It's not like there have been new developments, which is what makes me scratch my head as to why we're always in such a hurry to get new editions of textbooks.
Obviously, fields like science and history that have new developments there is a legit concern. But that's what the internet is for in my opinion.