Monday, June 8, 2009

California Schools to Phase out Textbooks


California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has unveiled a plan to save money by phasing out school textbooks in favor of internet aids, BBC reports. He says converting to online study will help keep pupils more up-to-date.

Gov Schwarzenegger believes internet activities such as Facebook, Twitter and downloading to iPods show that young people are the first to adopt new online technologies, and so the internet is also the best way to learn in classrooms. But it is believed the real reason Gov Schwarzenegger wants the change is money. Last year California spent $350m on textbooks and can no longer afford it.

The Maldives also spends millions of rufiyaa each year to provide school textbooks, many of which are actually not used in classrooms according to parents. Perhaps we could also think of going for I-textbooks in the future. But it is currently not feasible as most students don't have easy access to computers either at school or home.

[To read more on the California initiative click here.]

6 comments:

Stewie said...

Very interesting.
In future i see all the curriculum can be personalized to fit the interests and passions of the individual. Internet is almost a limitless pool of information even now and imagine what it could provide if every information was made available free of charge. Digital books, audios/videos of lectures etc.. i always download books in PDF and read them, i hardly buy books.

I read a very interesting piece i would like to share by a fellow blogger:
http://superconcepts.poweressence.com/education/future-education

Anonymous said...

second hand textbooks.
book banks at school.

Anonymous said...

Obviously this is not an idea that is even close to being feasible....let alone internet, many islands have powercuts so often...lasting weeks sometimes...
and as for internet, its too expensive and more expensive than books may be!!!

Anonymous said...

In California they have gay marriages too. And they are famous for(cali)fornication.

Anonymous said...

CA banned gay marriages last May.

Californians also comment bigoted and illogical comments anonymously. Should we stop doing that too?

Anonymous said...

Instead of privatizing schools we can think of making all e-schools.