Article by Diane Shawe M.Ed MIod
Historical evidence has shown that over the past 5 years, some universities had tried to break away from the traditional textbook model in the past—and failed, due to a lack of feasible alternatives. But many academic teachers and private training schools are finding that the online materials now available allow them to teach entire courses without textbooks, with no negative consequences to student learning. In some cases, digital materials may be even better than traditional texts because of their variety and timeliness and media.
Technological revolution has change the way students are educated. Diane Shawe the founder and CEO of Academy of Vocational and Professional training has demonstrated time and time again that the tablet and the e-book has change how students learn through their Learning Management Solution. LMS.
A recent Tech event lists several advantages for tablets and e-book:
- Tablets are lightweight compared to textbooks. This is true given that we can store a large number of books on a single tablet.
- E-books are cheaper than traditional textbooks. This is a somewhat fallacious argument. Textbooks can be used standalone while tablets require electricity and the initial cost of a tablet is still pretty high. E-books will probably be sold at a cheaper price than traditional textbooks, but e-books cannot be resold once the class is over and thus the overall cost for the student could be as high as today. A major advantage of e-books for publishers is that they might be able to kill the second-hand market
- E-books provide richer content. This is potentially true. For some topics, multimedia content will be a benefit. However, this argument was also given when the first e-learning software were distributed, for hyper-card, CDs and other types of technologies
- E-books can be automatically updated. This is both an advantage and a drawback. For the student, this means that it can get the latest content. Note that this does not require a tablet and nature has introduced a principle of biology textbook that is hosted on its servers and also regularly updated. For the teacher, it means that he/she has to check the updates of the e-book each year and reflect them for his/her classes.
I think that it is useful for teachers and even the educational departments throughout the UK begin to experiment with the utilisation of e-books in classes as well. Instead of storing lots of paperback text books, the saving could be stealth like which the saving could be redirected to other much needed resources short of funding. The courses are packaged in a chunk-able format so that blended learning can take place whilst the student is on the move and help young people into work quickly.”
Academy of Vocational and Professional Training Ltd has expanded it online suite of courses to help students access whilst on the move a range of soft skills courses. Tim Dingle the Chief Development Officer states: “The ‘Chunk-able format’an Introduction to a new kind of Learning in which the courses are designed in, allows students to work on the move using their tablet, smartphone or notebook, rather than committing to a 2000-word essay and most courses can even be completed in just one month! Every student is assisted by a live Virtual Tutor Facilitator so as to ensure every student completes there course in four weeks”
As initiatives such as those mentioned above are expanded, they just might be catalysts for growth in the market for low-cost or free digital textbooks. And as far as the educators who’ve created their own digital alternatives are concerned, these efforts have the potential to replace textbooks altogether.
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