In all areas of the country, technology is on the rise. Education has likely seen the greatest increase4 over the past few years. Teachers are now using more technology in their teaching and students are now using more technology in their learning.
Technology has now become as much of a classroom necessity as paper pencil and chalkboard. Teachers are relying on technology for teaching ideas, teaching strategies, and even students and teacher communication. My district now completes lesson plans on line. Lesson plan books have become nearly extinct in my area.
Teachers are assigning PowerPoint presentations and Internet research projects. Students are completing graphs and spreads sheets and teachers are using virtual experiments and dissections. When teachers cannot find pictures or books about particular topics or animals, they search the web for quick information.
With all of this technology floating around, a few districts (such as Grain Valley) are wondering is the adopted text are out dated. Why should the county spend millions of dollars on pricy books when teachers can make use of the computers in their rooms? The district is really questioning the need of text in areas such as history.
Most of the needed information can be found on sites. Teachers can be given topics and then find what they need through educational sites.
The idea of using fewer textbooks will save the county money and also be better for the environment. Because of new information, textbooks can become outdate quickly. Websites are updated much quicker and easier than textbooks. Newer more up to date information in history is better found through the Internet. It takes much longer to publish books than web articles and news.
In the near future teachers may see a great decrease in the use of textbooks in the classroom setting. In addition paper and pencil may also be a thing of the past. Students are now more than ever being equipped with laptops and emailing their assignments to teachers.