Here’s a litmus test to identify people who put their faith in Encyclopedia Britanica as opposed to those who pray at the church of Wikipedia. In late July, Reuters reported that California schools are experimenting with teaching social studies without textbooks.
What began as a long-shot attempt last year by Pearson Plc to sell California educators digital materials to teach history and politics, collectively known in US schools as social studies, has become reality in what could be the first large-scale step to eliminate books from classrooms.Pearson, the world’s biggest publisher of educational materials, disclosed on Monday with its half-year results that about half the state’s elementary school students will learn about the American Revolutionary War and Thomas Jefferson using an interactive computer program.
The company also said its success in California, where about 1.5 million students aged 5-11 will use the program in classrooms this year, has led it to plan the same approach in additional states and with more subjects.
This makes sense to me. Many things worthy of study are obsolete before they make it to the printed page. How can one study current events with out-of-date materials?
The 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica, now out of copyright, is entirely online. I could not find any mention of Saudi Arabia, the Titanic, espresso, the assembly line, Canadian mounties, Iraq, nuclear, television, computer, or the League of Nations. Of course not. The Encyclopedia is not wrong; it’s out of date. That’s one reason schools should be wary of books and keen on the net. The net is up-to-the-minute.
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Interesting article. I’m sure there are subjects where this is a great strategy. ie. subjects that change often.
If they are using a hosted model.
“That’s one reason schools should be wary of books and keen on the net.” Sure, for reference sources, and then really only when reading on screen is realistic. But for “culture”? Would you not rather have your Primo Levi, or Feynman on Physics, or DH Lawrence in your hand?
Seb
It may be out of date, but that’s no reason not to list the Mounties. The Royal North-West Mounted Police, as they were originally known, were very much in existence back then and had already carved out the reputation they enjoy today.
Which brings us to the other reason to be wary of publications such as encyclopedias: they are narrowly focused on what is deemed important by a particular culture or world view. One which, in this case, did not think of Mounties as important (of course, we all now know otherwise).