E-Books 101 for California politicians
Quick thoughts for all gubernatorial candidates:
In tech, California is easily State Number One. Shouldn’t the pubic schools reflect this? E-books and appropriate learning software would be one way to help address the textbook shortage in certain cases, at least if provisions were made for affordable hardware. In the long run this approach would be far easier on taxpayers’ wallets than buying textbooks over and over again.
A Harris poll last year showed that 32 percent of California teachers complained of not enough textbooks for children to take home. What’s more, the poll showed that the most underprivileged students are almost twice as likely as others to suffer from lack of adequate textbooks and other learning materials.
“It is unacceptable that there are as many students in California without a textbook as there are people in the cities of Long Beach, Fresno, Sacramento, Oakland and Riverside combined,” says Joshua Pechthalt, a Los Angele teacher quoted by Public Advocates.
Needless to say, supplemental reading and recreational reading can help, and TeleRead would be a very cost-effective way to spread the goodies around. From the start TeleRead has advocated small, inexpensive, tablet-style computers that students could take home.
Another feature of the TeleRead vision has been file-sharing, with provisions for fair compensation for content owners. And that’s of potential importance to students in California and elsewhere, which could benefit from collaborative and cooperative learning–approaches that many educators consider to be very suitable for the high-tech era. Students need to be able to share material without fear.
Last but hardly least, California’s local and state officials have an important role to play in educating their Senators and Representative about the need for balanced copyright law on the Internet. Federal legislation such as the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act will prove very expensive for California schools and libraries in the long run.
More thoughts: E-books are hardly a panacea for the many challenges facing educators, and like other technology, they come with the need for adequate technical support and training. But they could help. Keep in mind, too, the potential of Net-connected computers in such areas as improved parent-teacher communication. And speaking of parents, TeleRead-style computers would be a great way to encourage families to read and discuss books together.
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