Why a textbook

There is an anti-textbook bias rising among educators. I am trying to understand why. I know that at the college level there is a great concern with cost. As I have argued elsewhere this argument typically accompanied by the tab for a sample semester is often misrepresented. What I mean by this is most students resell their books so the actual cost is 1/2 the tab that is reported. In the K-12 environment I am not certain just what the most common issue. Perhaps the problem is the structured nature of the content limiting the creativity of the teacher and/or the students. It is not my intention to argue against these positions beyond noting that the cost of textbooks is frequently overstated.

My interest here is in explaining what I think the value of a textbook could be. In other posts, I have argued that a textbook in contrast to individual resources providers learners a structure for the content presented. Learning is only partly about the ideas stored, but also about the organization of this content. The author or authors responsible for a text typically do more than just present a set of ideas but built these ideas into a meaningful structure.

After reading many of the popular books, not what I would consider textbooks, being discussed online by educators I propose one additional benefit of many textbooks. Textbook authors are not necessarily promoters of a given instructional strategy or position. In our approach, we present multiple strategies and also deal with the known limitations and available research findings associated with the different approaches we discuss. Most of the popularized professional development literature lacks this balance. When I read promotions of student coding, project based learning, or a position such as Internet searching rather than fact learning, I cringe. The research literature simply would argue that in general these are flawed positions. In other words, promotion of these positions as strategies that are generally superior are misleading and poorly informed (e.g., learning by doing is superior). This schism between the research findings and the desires of those promoting without critical analysis a given strategy is difficult to justify.

So, if you are willing to pay someone for a product, I would suggest it is most valuable to invest in products that offer a careful analysis of strengths and weaknesses rather than attempt to popularize a new idea without an open mind to what is known about effectiveness.

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Something concrete enough to discuss

I find that future educators often glaze over when I mention research. When faced with this reaction, I often propose that researchers face a challenge many “experts” on educational topics are not required to address. Researchers must be very concrete when it comes to the topics they study. I did say concrete. The notion that academics are abstract is a representation and when true applies to explanations they offer but not the techniques they use. Unlike other experts who can offer generalizations, researchers must conduct experi ents. They are doer and not talkers. They have to define their interests in terms of specific situations and actions. I describe this as “operationalization” which may not be a familiar term. It pretty much means researchers are required to explain how an hypothesis is turned into an investigation. They cannot hide behind vague terms – motivation, engagement, creative, etc.

The skills of critical thinking and literacy make a good example. Both sound like areas in which we want to encourage achievement, but what are such skills when it comes to a specific setting? My own interest is in these skills as applied in online learning. Here is an example of a study developed by a researcher focused on these skills. I encourage educators to consider the “Methods” section.

The great thing about the specificity of research is that the methodology offers something concrete to discuss and debate.

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My 2014 blog data

I have blogged since 2002. In recent years, I have split my attention across three WordPress blogs. My blogs are hosted on my site (not the Word.Press hosted site), but I can use analytic tools provided by WordPress. This has been the case for the past few years.

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My views has declined recently and I have been trying to figure out why. I thought the issue was a user switch from RSS feeds to Twitter (I do not work hard at developing a large Twitter following which would receive notifications of new posts), but it seems more a decline in posts being located in searches. I do not understand why this would happen unless there has been some change in how near the top of search results my content appears.

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The major decline has been associated with my main blog (learningaloud). My post numbers are down a bit because I now post to several sites. but this would not totally explain this sharp drop. The Curmudgeon Speaks blog is up in numbers. Do folks want funny over serious?

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Be the bridge

Howard Rheingold’s NetSmart offers an interesting analysis of the potential benefits of online networks. As I understand his analysis, there might be a couple of issues anyone hoping to learn from an online community might overlook.

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The first is “the power of weak ties”. A tendency of those new to the network might be to motivate friends to convene for online discussions. I am reminded of the “edchat” phenomenon when bringing up this issue. In comparison to those we know, “weak ties” bring something new to a conversation – different ideas and perhaps challenges to existing ways of thinking. The value in advancing thinking is to experience different perspectives and challenges to existing personal views.

Given that “echo chamber” networks are likely most common (my comment), members of a given network who bridge to other networks (networks with different perspectives) are particularly valuable. Such participants may not be the most prominent within a given network, but add the diversity that encourages a deeper examination of topics.

It might be helpful to examine what you consider your personal learning network in this fashion. Are you a bridge? Does your network involve those who serve as bridges? Do administrators participate with classroom teachers? Do researchers participate with practitioners?

These analyses offer a description of what types of learning groups are most productive, but not necessarily how to develop a productive group. I have a thing with those who use the phrase “from what we know about learning”. I would prefer that something specific follow this phrase rather than assuming any position taken has been magically justified. Here is one thing I think we know about learning (from Piaget and other constructivists, conceptual change research, etc.) – models of the world mature when existing models are challenged. Being willing to maintain an open mind and to seek diversity are important characteristics in learning individuals and learning groups. So, one place to begin in generating a more productive learning group might be to define the diversity in the existing organization and consider how this diversity might be increased. It would seem quite practical to examine the transcripts from past discussions and look for indicators of variety and even contradiction.

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The participatory continuum

I have found the time to read some of the writers that got me most enthused about teacher and student authoring (Howard Rheingold, Henry Jenkins, Dan Gillmor). Making and coding seem to dominate recent conversations, but I still believe that writing can be more easily generalized as a learning activity. The authors I list were and continue to be promoters of what has come to be called web 2.0, the read/write web, or my preference – the participatory web. I intend to visit this topic several times when I have time to write during the holiday season.

My preference for the phrase “participatory web” as an educational construct comes from the focus on participation. Learners not only receive information, but cognitively act on information. This is the core idea in constructivism (note cognitive activity and not physical activity is key). What came with web 2.0 tools were the opportunities to contribute.

Jenkins writes about the many ways in which individuals contribute to benefit others on the Internet. He notes that there are quick and easy ways to contribute. The easy options include liking, +ing, retweeting, tagging. Folks who engage in such activities for personal benefit improve the potential of online content for the entire community.

However, I think it is important to recognize that participatory activities can be positioned along a continuum. More demanding activities offer greater learning benefits to those who invest more in creating content and also provide greater value to the community. If no one creates content, there is nothing to tag, curate, or pass on to others.  In other words, creating content has the greatest personal and collective value.

My concern is that with the focus on “easy” socialization and microblogging we are missing this point regarding the value of participation at the more demanding end of the continuum. My point is that educators consider the positioning of activities along the participatory continuum personally and in terms of the activities they encourage in their students.

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Snippefy

I read many Kindle books to assist in my writing activities. The highlighting and annotation that I do as part of the reading process is what fuels my future efforts. There are advantages to working digitally rather than highlighting hard copy or taking notes, but I fear few have a work flow that takes advantage of the digital advantages. Here is a new app I have been using.

Snippefy downloads Kindle notes and highlights to your iPad and if you make an in-app purchase will upload these data to Evernote or DropBox. One could then share this content socially. I understand there are other ways to get at and download this content from Amazon, but Snippefy makes the process very easy.

One issue you might want to consider if you decide to try this app is that you must enter your Amazon login info to gain access. I assume you can trust the company responsible for the app, but some worry others might gain access to you login info. Note this login is the means by which you connect to Amazon to make purchases. I can only bring this potential issue to your attention – I am not certain how else you could gain access unless Amazon offered an API. Update: Snippify contacted me (my posts generate Tweets) to indicate that their app stores your personal information on your iPad and not on their servers.

The two images that appear below show the app access to your books (first image) and the downloaded annotations from a given book (second image).

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P.S. – I continued my search for a way to efficiently download notes and highlights after learning that Snippefy requires you use your Amazon credentials to sign in. MyClippings.io is a web based service that does approximately the same thing. This approach either requires that you connect your Kindle to your computer using a USB cable or by using a Chrome extension. The direct connect can only access the content available on your Kindle. The Chrome approach sounds great, but the extension must be rented for $2 a month. I prefer to pay and own my software so this approach is not a favorite.

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I am still searching for an ideal approach.

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Holiday reading recommendations

If you are looking to find a good read for the holiday season, allow me to make several recommendations. Each of us likely has a somewhat unique way of thinking about what makes a quality read. I look for interesting ideas and some depth offered in support of the ideas. These suggestions all offer these characteristics.

H. Rheingold – Netsmart: How to thrive online
d. boyd – It’s complicated: The social lives of networked teens
D. Goldstein – The teacher wars: A history of America’s most embattled profession
D. Ravitch – Reign of error
S. Martinez & G. Stager – Invent to learn: Making, tinkering and engineering in the classroom

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