South African Schools To Go Textbook Free

An anonymous reader writes "South African education authorities are about to embark on an ambitious plan to take their schools textbook free, using the familiar refrain of one-tablet-per-child to do so. The education minister in Gauteng (the province which covers Johannesburg and Pretoria) has announced a plan to model new schools in the area on Sunward Park, a government school which went all-digital at the start of 2012. Other schools in the state will then follow, along with a plan to extend the project nationally."

Comments

This always ends well....

[Anonymous Coward]

South Africa, welcome to ridiculously marked up pdfs of textbooks, no way to "sell back" or "buy used," and licensing/broken device issues. Enjoy!

Re:This always ends well....

[NotDrWho]

Agreed, I think this is less a sign of progress and more a sign of texbook publishers cracking down on used books. School districts will initially think they're getting a great deal, until they realize that all the textbooks they thought they had "bought" will disappear the second they stop making their monthly licensing payments.

Re:This always ends well....

[dak664]

As always, there is plenty of free and superior course material. The real graft is at whatever level can issue the mandate that the latest and priciest must be used. Nothing but the best for our children, etc.

Re:This always ends well....

[turkeyfish]

Actually in South Africa it is far worse than that. The government can't even get the textbooks it has already purchased to students. Tens of thousands of textbooks were lost in warehouses, were rain and wind destroyed many before they were even delivered and as it turns out audits showed that huge discrepancies in what was paid for and what was delivered.

For South Africa going "all digital" is more likely another opportunity for an increasingly corrupt ruling party to steal even more money from the existing system, which is bordering on collapse. Teachers aren't being paid, many school buildings don't have windows or desks, or even walls. To be sure that this is some kind of bad joke, its no secret that the country's electrical supply system is so spotty that it can't keep the lights on in most major cities, without constant power failures even for the homes of the wealthy, much less schools without electricity. Coupled with mounting evidence that computers can actually retard learning and you have the makings of another incredible mess, not to mention much missed opportunity for South African students.

Not the whole country

[CRCulver]

I am not surprised to hear such a move being made in Gauteng, one of the country's wealthiest states and fairly decently managed by South African standards. However, South Africa is a country of enormous contrasts, and other parts of the country have abysmal schooling -- before whizbang technological solutions, simply improving teacher qualifications and cutting down on absenteeism would be necessary.

Re:Not the whole country

[u38cg]

Not to mention the fact there are still kids being taught under trees.

Textbooks aren't that important

[CastrTroy]

I grew up in Canada, and I don't recall having textbooks at all until high school, and even then, they were limited. Lots of textbooks in university of course. Personally, I never really saw much value in text books. They tend to contain a lot of material not covered in the course, and also missed out on some material that was covered in the course. The best "text books" I ever had were from professors who provided us with about 100-200 pages of course notes which were just printed off by the university printing department, on large photocopiers. Way cheaper than text books. Way lighter than text books, and contained exactly the material they needed to contain for the course.

Re:Textbooks aren't that important

[symbolset]

Compare a chemistry textbook. It is a wonder old high school chemistry texts aren't classified WMD.

Re:Textbooks aren't that important

[perpenso]

Best calculus book ever was Calculus Made Easy. It really makes the subject as clear as possible. Everything since is filler.

"Thus [integral symbol] dx means the sum of all the little bits of x; or [integral symbol] dt means the sum of all the little bits of t. Ordinary mathematicians call this symbol “the integral of.” Now any fool can see that if x is considered as made up of a lot of little bits, each of which is called dx, if you add them all up together you get the sum of all the dx’s, (which is the same thing as the whole of x). The word “integral” simply means “the whole.”"

I may have to revise my earlier statement that a good freshman calculus text can last decades. This book may demonstrate that one can last over a century (1910 publication date).

Thanks.

In the right direction

[AthanasiusKircher]

I don't know what the practice in South Africa is, but in the U.S., most public school textbooks are provided by the school. Students can't take notes in them or highlight them. That's still the major advantage for me for paper books: they're easier to annotate quickly and informally (particularly on a tablet). But if you can't do that, why do you need the paper book?

Textbooks from the past couple decades are ridiculously heavy, loading with unnecessary illustrations and other bulk which seem to be there simply for eye-candy for textbook adopting boards. (Completely unnecessary in an internet age when a teacher can project photos of just about anything up as necessary.) But this is beside the point.

I've seen many middle-school kids lugging around backpacks that weigh almost as much as they do. Is that really necessary?

With a tablet, it's not necessary anymore. Textbooks can be filled with not only illustrations but audio and video examples or animations, if needed. And that's not even exploring the possibility for new types of interactivity.

As I'm sure many will point out here, the concern is probably about licensing fees, which will probably require an annual fee to keep using textbooks. So, in the long-term, we need to move toward adoption of more free textbooks (or textbooks that can be simply downloaded, without requiring licensing), many of which already exist online. Heck, for many subjects (primary and secondary math, grammar, etc.), public domain PDF textbooks from 100 years ago would cover almost the same material, saving a lot of money to be spent toward, say, actual interactive apps that teach in innovative ways, along with the few concepts left out of the old textbooks.

Re:In the right direction

[UnknownSoldier]

Physical Textbooks have one advantage that will never be replicated with digital ones:

Spatial Memory

When I an open a textbook 3/4 of the way through I can use that fact as a mnemonic to help me remember "where" in the book the information is. With a digital "bookmark" I have no clue if I'm 25%, 50%, or 75% through. I am forced to rely on a working Search for the digital book.

I also like the fact that I can highlight my books. If students are unable to do that that is a hinderance to their learning.

Physical books are awesome for linear reading but suck for random searching.
Digital Books are awesome for random searching, but suck for linear reading.

I like to curl on the couch and read a good paperback or hard cover. Reading by tablet is "meh". There is something visceral about being physically connected to the book you are reading by the simple act of turning a page that a tablet completely fails to satisfy.

Every medium has its pros and cons. There is no one size fits all.

As taxpayers we all should be demanding that the government provide open source textbooks. This nonsense of artificially limiting textbook access and pork barrel spending to line some greedy publishers pockets needs to end.

If wikipedia didn't suck @$$ and instead provided a Tutorial and Example sections we wouldn't need textbooks.

But as a society we would rather watch 2 men beat themselves up then pay attention to the greatest role in any society:

The Teacher.

What used book market ?

[perpenso]

South Africa, welcome to ridiculously marked up pdfs of textbooks, no way to "sell back" or "buy used," and licensing/broken device issues. Enjoy!

What "sell back" or "buy used"? K-12 schools seem to buy books and use them year after year until they disintegrate, well at least that was my experience.

The K-12 book market is very different than the college book market.

Re:lugging around backpacks

[csumpi]

I've seen many middle-school kids lugging around backpacks that weigh almost as much as they do. Is that really necessary?

Yes, it is. It's called exercise. And after completely destroying physical education, to protect fat kids from being heckled, it's the last bit of exercise kids get nowadays.

So go on ahead, take this away, too.