I've been in my new position now for a couple months and I have heard so much discussion about textbooks that really frustrates me. I'm working on how to have this conversation and here are my selling points:
First off, I read a Genius post by Tom Whitby @tomwhitby:
http://tomwhitby.wordpress.com/2012/03/20/we-dont-need-no-stinkn-textbooks-beyondthetextbook/
Second, I borrowed the technique of the math from Tony DiLaura @anthonydilaura
Buying 40 books per 4 teacher team:
$67/book x 160 books = $10,720
So let's work with that budget:
What if teacher’s made the “book”?
4 teachers = $100/day (for subs) = $400/day
At $400/day we could take 4 teachers out of the classroom for 26.8 days and create a textbook of our own.
Can we make a better book in 26.8 days?
That's not ideal AT ALL, but at least it seems doable.
Now imagine if we "paid" teachers to do it outside of the work day.....
If we assumed $15-$20 per hour in the summer/after school time x 4 teachers/grade level for a total of $60-$80 per hour....
the $10,720 budget to pay teachers would mean we could have anywhere from 134 to 178 hours of work to pay (dare I say invest in) teachers to make their own book.
Can we do it better? Can we do a better job of keeping it updated? Allow it to be ours?
What if we "OPEN SOURCED" our learning?
Can you believe that video is from 2006!!!!!!!!!!!! And we are still having this conversation.
I mean let's be crazy:
What if we published it and sold it online? To schools and homeschool organizations?
I know I drank the "apple Kool-Aid," but
Let's be honest, they do it better...
There are many pieces of technology available to help us. What if we purchased 4 Macbook Airs ($4000) and downloaded the iBooks Author Software (FREE) (Tony's How to) as well as the pages app ($40) that leaves us with over $6000 to pay teachers or subs to make our own book....
I just don't get it, let's just face it, purchasing textbooks just doesn't add up...
