Online Textbooks: 21st Century Integration that Saves $

California has begun using open source, electronic, textbooks for math and science this school year. Some of the books reviewed were simply scanned textbooks but others make the jump into the 21st century with embedded links to movies, recent news articles, music files and more to enhance lessons and reading. Either the textbook company can update information or teachers can also but all state reviewed texts will be updated every 2 years compared with current textbook adoption taking place every 2 years. One may think that students who do not have a computer at home would be at a disadvantage but several companies have their textbooks available via cell phones which even more economically disadvantaged students seem to have so computers may no longer be a barrier. The financial implications can seem great but the state California put $350 million towards online textboooks in 2008 compared with $600 million in 2007 for new textbooks.
Looking at our own state with budget issues and so many schools having one-to-one laptops for senior high students online textbooks definately seem like a great option to investigate.
For the complete article check out Edutopia online or your December magazine edition.