You’re giving me college textbook flashbacks. And it’s not pleasant! Pay an arm and a leg for ‘em and get pennies on the dollar back at the end of the semester. Lugging them round campus was like lugging a bag of bricks. If they can get class materials on a tablet or laptop, more power to ‘em. The college textbook racket is a scheme the mob looks on with jealousy.
CC
The local ISD started issuing laptops a few years back. Technology moves on. It took me four months to complete my senior thesis in college: dozens of hours in the stacks, waited weeks for supplemental materials to arrive in the mail, took me a weekend to type 40 pages, etc. With today's technology, I would have been done in less than a third of the time.
OTOH, we received an email from one of my son's teachers (he's a freshman in HS), busting him for playing a game on the computer in class. As one who spent half of eighth grade in detention for being a cutup in class, I sympathized with both parties, which came out in my response:
Dear Ms. Teacher, rest assured that I have spoken to my son about unauthorized use of computers in class. However, what did you expect would happen when you eliminated textbooks in favor of laptops? Learning how to use newer technologies is nearly as important as the information you are presenting.
There's more than a few of my children's teachers that do not enjoy interacting with me, and I can see why. I'm an amateur historian who lived in Germany for four years (learning the language in the process), did 8 years as an officer in the Army, two degrees, one from a Jesuit university...IOW, I grew up in an era when teachers taught, and students learned, and tested out at 12th grade reading level in 6th grade.
My personal experiences taught me what works in an educational environment, and what they're doing today ain't cutting it.