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How Would You Select a Textbook?
benj_e asks: "I'm thinking about doing some adjunct teaching at a couple of local community colleges, and have the opportunity to choose the textbook for an online JavaScript class. In the training classes I've given in the corporate world, I didn't have the need to select a text - there were no textbooks for the software I was teaching students to use aside from the manual. I'm pretty sure I want something with WebCT or Blackboard content, but other than that I'm, well, clueless. So, for all you educators out there - how do you go about selecting a textbook? What goes into your decision making process?"
Look at what other respected professors use (at other universities) and evaluate those options. They have massive resources at their disposal, so they should have made a good choice. You can then choose what best suits your particular teaching style.
JavaScript PDFs
Have them buy an approrpaite reference, like an O'Reilly book, and use that. Then make notes that replicate what you would have done if you were teaching one person, use overheads from that.
The professor goes into a bookstore and picks the most expensive textbook on the shelf, and dealing with the on-campus bookstore just adds salt onto the wounds.
Perhaps because most browsers don't support languages like Smalltalk (!) and Tcl (!)?
the layman's guide to computer science
/wanda
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
For example, I was recently involved in moving our entry-level CS classes from C++ to Java, and helping the instructors get themselves set up. What to use? As a Java hacker, my gut said: just use lecture notes etc. But wiser heads prevailed. Eventually we went with Lewis and Loftus, which besides being well constructed for its task (teaching elementary computer science in Java) has a massive amount of support materials. We could not possibly match that in quality. Yes, it's $70 on Amazon. You can get it cheaper tho. And it's worth it: we use it for three classes in a row.
What book to use for your JavaScript class? That I can't say, though O'Reilly's book is actually not horrible. But that's my hacker instinct firing off again...
I can attest to how expensive computer science textbooks are (along with just about every other science). It irks me to no end when a teacher makes me (or rather, highly recommends) me to buy a $90 Java book where I could go pick up a $25 Java book from B&N or Half Priced Books that would teach me the same thing. Or, when a teacher (this is especially true in math) recommends to buy the latest edition of a textbook (and Calculus books are not cheap) when the previous edition can be purchased for $10. First and second year calc hasn't changed in 6 years! (End Rant) So thats what I recommend, go to the local big bookstore (B&N, Borders, etc..) and see what regular programming books they have on JavaScript (I dunno, something by O'Reilly might work, I haven't touched a JS book in years). One that is pretty up to date with DOM and newer JS features shouldn't be hard to find. Recommend that one to your students.
Sure, it may not be WebCT compatable (but WebCT sucks anyway), but you're students will thank you for letting them purchase a much cheaper book.
-Vic
Or is academia the only thing keeping Java alive? It really seems as if contemporary CS programs are there in large part to promote the continued use of Java.
</conspiracy>
Why is Java so popular in academia but not so popular everywhere else? It would make more sense for instructors to teach something like python instead (since it is arguably both easier to learn and quicker to write).
Is it not time for Java to be deprecated in favor of something that's superior?
Best regards, A.C.
I have not suggested any book for Javascript, and nor would I.
A search for any kind of book on Javascript woudl show up about 4 million websites, about 100k of them with up to date information, and about 20 books published within the last 3-4 years.
Students can use multiple sources to learn Javascript, a book is not one of them that comes to mind.
In a web design course in general (or web engineering) I usually get them either a resource on non technical aspects of web design tricks, and point them to W3schools, or certainly suggest a complete programming guide to the language they are learning. (which allows them to study it offline so to speak).
Many students may not have web access, but I feel that 3/4 A4 pages can disseminate so much about Javascript for a student based course that you do not need a programmer type reference for Javascript, all those no doubt giving thier O'Reiley versus XYZ Javascript book reviews shoudl bear that in mind.
I say write 4 pages of intro code to javascript and give 4-5 practical examples.
That is enough.
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
If you have the time, I would try to read as many as possible and then simply select the one you think is the best.
This will also benefit you in that it may give you ideas for your class, and conversely, if you know what your general curriculum will be already then you can simply see what book matches best with that.
Armchairgenius.com - Where everyone is a genius.
i teach mod civ and computer programming (ap comp sci) at a high school. i use the textbooks for both classes very little. i find most text books to be horrible and lacking any real content. what i do for mod civ is find much better article, essays, etc., from reputable locations, use source documents, and always supplement with my knowledge of the subject. I use alot of historical texts and sections from them. as for the computer programming, i have found a ton of resources on the internet, but mostly, i explain a concept, then give them work to practice. with the millions of resources available on the internet, it is ahrdly likely a textbook will cover something novel.
and truthfully, if you need a text book, the teach yourself in 21 days series are as good an introdcutory book as you will find. i also like the oreilly series alot too. the best part about the oreilly books is that they are not too expensive, and they will be useful after the class.
My problem? I was perfectly gruntled, until some numbnuts came by and dissed me.
Examine as many textbooks as you can (they greatly differ in both scope and quality). I strongly suggest selecting a text matches your philosophy, and covers as much of your planned course material as possible. It is best if the text provides more depth than the class so your students might want to retain the book as part of their professional library for future reference.
Feel free to email questions, best of luck. -Ken
Why don't more professors require the O'Reilly books? For most topics, I know we have to purchase some $100 textbook for class, but when we get on the job we end up just buying the O'Reilly reference book. Why not require your students to purchase the O'Reilly book and then just teach selected topics from it? That way they already have the very best reference book to take to work with them. Look at this for instance: Javascript, the Definitive Guide. Now they'll never need another Javascript book. They'll thank you when they get into the workplace.
As a student of computer engineering, I highly recommend just making your own handouts. You probably have tons of java books at your disposal just make copys of the things you like out of all kinds of books. Make sure you give credit to authors when need of course. I can tell you that students pay more attention to hand-outs then a chapter that they where supposed to read last week sometime.
In programming most text books are basically just semantics of that language anyways. You are there to teach the HOW and WHY. Books and handouts are just a reference for when you are unavailable. Also every person learns differently let your students go out and find a book they can understand and use instead of corralling them into a specific style.
mefus
In Open Society, GPL Software frees YOU!
Having taught a few Linux based courses at a community college, I can tell you that finding a good text book is not easy. I don't have my masters yet, so they following is just from personal experience.
Start by making an outline for the class. How many class meeting will you have? What to want to teach? What do you think is important? Then break up what you want to do into subjects that can be taught individually. Use your own opinion as to how the course should flow and what seems logical to you. You are teaching the course. Trying to teach a subject out-of-order (in your opinion) will not only confuse the students but it will also frustrate you.
After you have an outline of how you are going to teach the course, try to find a book that closely follows your outline. This is the hard part. You are rarely going to find a book that presents a subject the way you would like it to be presented. This is the reason why some of the best books on a subject are not the best ones to teach from. This is also why instructors write their own books, so that they can follow how they think the subject should be taught.
If all else fails, pick a good book that the student can use as a reference after the course. What you will end up with is a good book, but you'll be jumping around within the book like a lot of instructors end up doing.
One of the problems I've seen are when a certain subject gets taught by multiple instructors. Then the department has to pick one book that everyone will use. This book usually ends up being a compromise that noone likes. There's not much you can do in this situation other than try to influence the choice of the text book in the future. If you are only teaching part time, don't be surprised if you are ignored.
Get a couple of books that discuss how to teach. Some of the better ones are actually short in length. One of the most important things I learned from one is that students will do most of their learning on their own. You are just there to present the information and to guide them.
You also need to know the subject well enough to give intelligent sounding answers to off the wall questions. Don't say you don't know. Instead, tell the students that you can't remember the answer off the of your head and that you'll get back to them (or some other excuse).
The books on how to be an instructor will give you some good advice on how to handle situations you are going to be unprepared for.
Go not unto/. for advice, for you will be told both yea and nay (but have nothing to do with the question)
Go out to get yourself in trouble.
echo 33676832766569823265328479713269.8639857989Pq | dc
Most textbook publishers will send you free evaluation versions so that you can check them out. Go to the academic sections for major textbook publisher websites (Addison-Wesley, McGraw-Hill, O'Reilly, etc...), find the book you want, and there's always a link for "send me an evaluation copy."
If the purpose of the course is to give immediate knowledge that they can take to a job and say "See, I know JavaScript!" then stick to books that you can find at the local bookstore (e.g., the "Teach Yourself in 21 Days" variety). There is nothing wrong with them for what you need to do with the content and what your students expect.
If the intent is to use JavaScript as a kind of stepping stone class to other higher level content or to really get into the depths of JavaScript (it is, after all, a full blown programming language that is quite capable), using a series of articles from web sites would serve you well for getting them bootstrapped and functional, but a more traditional text that teaches functional programming will make them more productive in the long run.
Whatever you choose, be sure you take a careful evaluation of the content and be sure to match it up with your course outline. Use the content of the book to reinforce or provide additional reference material for the lectures. (Please don't just lecture the contents of the book!)
Finally, keep project ideas in mind. You'll need a few simple project ideas that reinforce a particular chapter/lesson from week to week. Plan for a "big" 2-3 week project at the end of the course that brings all of their skills together and can serve as a reference project on their resume.
Best of luck.
I've been teaching at the college level for many years. Recently it has become true that ...
1. Textbooks are all the same.
2. They are outrageously expensive.
You lean like bandits on the megapublishers to lower prices, or...
You write up your own notes.
For several subjects (math, electronics, javascript and some other languages) there are suitable online resources for learning. Anything of interest to nerds and/or geeks and conveyable using the internet is generally pretty well documented.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
it really sucks for everyone involved (except the publisher). we, as faculty, have to constantly look for new material (when in most cases there is nothing wrong with the current text) and adjust our courses for these changes. the bookstores are stuck with copies of books that the publisher wont take back because there is a new version out, and the students -- they get the worst end -- most new textbooks _FLAT_OUT_SUCK_. they are written so quickly that they are full of errors and light on insightful explnations. they read more like poorly-written dictionaries with _no_resale value. the books, are in my opinion, supposted to aid in the course, not be the course. these days, a lot of them make better doorstops than course aids.
do what i did for the UNIX class i teach -- write your own materials. we charged the students $5 for the packets (which i will GDL as soon as i clean them up)
anyway, here are a list of pet peeves I have with a lot of my text books.
- A lot of text books focus on a particular application (e.g. programming javascript with Dreamweaver and Internet Explorer). Try to avoid these and focus on books that teach the subject in a bit more general terms.
- Look for books that give lots of code examples. Theory is a good thing, but some books that say they are teaching a specific language seem to instead focus on trying to books on programming theory.
- As above, but in reverse. Try to find books that do offer some theory, and don't just focus on having students memorize what a given block of code does.
That aside, whatever text book you pick, remember that all books have flaws, and be willing to deviate from the book when you feel that it doesn't offer up the best approach. I would also recommend NOT using book assignments, they tend to be extremely trivial, uninteresting, and will not get students excited about the project at all.Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
I worked for a couple of years at a small university and being new to teaching, but somewhat of a versed IT pro, I decided to be very idealistic about picking textbooks. I think it is *very* important to read what you are choosing to teach from before you decide. Don't just assume that the book from the last time the course was taught will be *good enough*!!
That being said, there is another important factor when choosing books. Make sure there are adequate exercises/test questions to go along with a book. I decided to teach a course on a programming language not necessarily popular with most academics (Perl), and I evaluated the few textbooks available. I felt that none were adequate and decided to teach out of one of my favorite books. It was the worst teaching experience I had. It is nearly impossible to create unambiguous questions for tests and creating exercises that are challenging while still short enough to be small assignments is another task I was not prepared to handle. Students need to learn one concept at a time and they need to do a few exercises to get the hang of each new concept. If you throw all the information at them and expect them to accomplish one large task, then many otherwise bright students will be overwhelmed and will not perform as well as they would like. Then, when the time comes, they will let you know using the all-powerful course evaluation that they were not happy with the course. Many people (especially students) do not realize how much goes into creating a textbook. If it were really a great scam to take money from students, then textbook authors and publishers would be huge, rich companies. Quite a bit of time is spent on the exercises and teaching resources involved in the book. In my estimation, I would say that more time is spent in the external content than is spent on what the student receives.
When reviewing a textbook, start checking at the end: a book without a *very* extensive index (10 pages at least) had better be used as fuel for a fire.
Whatever else you do, FOLLOW THE LANGUAGE STANDARD!
If you don't want to follow the language standards, please don't teach langauges that the industry uses. Teach them in languages like SmallTalk, or perhaps lesser-used languages like Scheme and Eiffel.
JavaScript has a standard. It is ECMA-262, or ISO/IEC 16262. It doesn't matter if you choose a book, or web sites, but one thing is critical: Make sure what you teach follows the standards. Since you will also using HTML, follow the HTML 4.1 standard, or XHTML 1.0. Don't use XHTML 1.1 yet, since nearly every server is misconfigured for it. Both standards are available at no cost.
In C, there are too many textbooks that teach things like void main(), encourage the use of scanf and gets, include examples that violate the standard and show undefined behavior, and have generally bad code. If your department teaches C, have your department verify that the books follow the standard. It's available for $18.
In C++, there are too many textbooks that don't follow the C++ standard. They often teach pre-standard C++ or mingle it with standard C++, pretend the language is just C with classes, fail to teach large portions of the language such as templates or the container and algorithm libraries, include examples that violate the standard and show undefined behavior, and have generally bad code. Again, if you teach C++ at the school, make sure your books follow that standard. It's also available for $18.
Doing this will save your students between 6 months to 1 year of correcting your school's bad teaching.
Thank you.
//TODO: Think of witty sig statement