ASHLAND —
For a number of years, many teachers throughout Kentucky have believed the time would come when students no longer carried their heavy textbooks in their backpacks and rushed to their lockers between classes to get a new supply of books. Instead, all their textbooks would be on laptop computers assigned to each student.
Well, that day may come much sooner than most expected thanks to the rising cost of textbooks and the lack of state money to help local districts purchase them.
For several years about $20 million a year has been allocated in the state budget to help local school distrcits purchase textbooks. However, the two-year state budget that took effect July 1 includes no money for textbooks. That means local school districts will be forced to either (1) come up their own money to buy textbooks, (2) extend the use of existing textbooks for another two years even if they already are out of date and in poor conditition, or (3) find a new way for delivering information to students.
Tim Maggard, director of instructional technology for the 14,000-student Hardin County School District, is convinced the answer lies in online textbooks that can be easily accessed by computer. He is busy working on what he calls the Kentucky Digital Textbook Project, creating what he calls “living” textbooks that would allow students to learn at their own levels and be free for all.
“Teachers have by necessity had to move away from textbooks,” said Wayne Benningfield, superintendent of schools in rural Todd County, where 2,100 students attend. “If a teacher primarily relies on outdated textbooks only for instruction, their students will not be successful on statewide assessments. Teachers are constantly searching for aligned curriculum materials from any source they can beg, steal or borrow.”
The lack of state money for textbooks comes at a time when schools are being asked to increase what students are learning to conform to new, more rigorous national benchmarks.
Pointing to a science textbook held together with duct tape that is still being used in the classroom, Maggard described it as a 10-pound paperweight. The book still includes Pluto as a full-fledged planet.
David Karem, Kentucky’s school board chairman and a former state senator from Louisville, said the state Department of Education is trying to help bridge the gap with a new computer system that encourages school districts to share online resources.
“Given that instability, we have to recommend a stronger reliance on online and blended learning opportunities that typically rely on open source and course-created resources,” Karem said.
Maggard and his team are seeking submissions from across the state for the virtual textbooks. Kentucky’s normal textbook-replacement schedule calls for one subject to be replaced every six years. Maggard said if it takes two years to produce at textbook and the book is then not replaced for a minimum of six years, students are “learning bad facts.”
Times have changed and technologies that did not exist 30 years ago are now nearly universal. Textbooks that are online can be updated almost constantly to include new information and delete out-of-date information. While it may take six years to demote Pluto from planet status in a published textbook, it can be done in a matter of minutes on an online textbook.
Of course, not all information online is accurate, but good teachers can help guide their students on how to distinguish between useful information and that which is inaccurate. While computers may be new to many older adults, most young people have never known a world without the Internet, email and texting. Making sure every student in the state has access to the information highway is the surest way to make up for the lack of funds for new textbooks.
Printed textbooks? Who needs them?
Editorials
Digital textbooks
Lack of state funding may change how students learn
- Editorials
-
-
Resentencing
The U.S. District Court of Appeals has rightly ruled that even those sentenced for crack cocaine violations before the approval of a 2010 law that restored a bit of sanity and fairness to federal sentencing laws can be resentenced under the 2010 law.
-
It's the law
On Jan. 22, Greenup County voters — or at least those who took time to cast ballots in the special referendum — rejected a proposal that would have allowed the legal sale of alcohol in the county by a rather convincing margin of 4,872-3,830.
-
Retiring
As members of the Ashland Board of City Commissioners look for a replacement for retiring City Manager Stephen W. Corbitt, they should seek someone just like Corbitt.
-
On the increase
It’s certainly good news that a new report by Kentucky’s Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet has found the economic impact of tourism grew by 5.2 percent in eastern Kentucky in 2012, outpacing the overall statewide growth rate. However, we would be more excited bout the report if we had more confidence in how tourism spending is calculated by state government.
-
After the crash
Like thousands of other Kentuckians, we remember well May 14, 1988, when a drunken driver traveling the wrong way on Interstate 71 near Carrollton struck a church bus returning home to Radcliff after day at King’s Island, causing one of he most deadly vehicle accidents in this nation’s history. The horrific crash killed 27, many of them teenagers, and injured 34 others.
-
High price tage
Much has been said and written about the rapid and dramatic decline of air passenger service at the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport. Much less has been said and written about the tremendous economic impact the loss of air service has had on the entire region.
-
Return of pencils
It is a question asked by all of us whose lives and jobs are dependent on computers with email and Internet access, fax machines, cellphones and other other electronic essentials of this modern age: What do you do when the electronic devices fail?
-
Banned
If you live in Boyd and Lawrence counties and are thinking of burning trash, wood, leaves or other debris outdoors, here’s a word of advice: Don’t even think about lighting that match. If you do, it could cost you dearly.
-
Few citations
When the 2011 Kentucky General Assembly approved a bill banning texting while driving and cellphone use for drivers younger than 18, there was widespread public support for both restrictions.
-
Booming times
Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergran Grimes has launched a statewide tour to gauge public support for allowing more voters to cast their ballots before Election Day. While other states have enacted laws to allow early voting, the biggest obstacle to the proposal in Kentucky is the state’s history of widespread voter fraud.
- More Editorials Headlines
-
Resentencing
Obama Offers Drone Strike Defense
Raw: Heckler Interrupts Obama on Guantanamo
A Slice of Apple History Up for Grabs
Johnson: Don't Blame Islam or UK Policy
Raw: 80-Year-Old Climbs Mount Everest
Wash. State Man Arrested Following Ricin Scare
Chain-Reaction School Bus Crash Injures About 50
Raw: Scuffles in London After Hacking Death
Texas Students Coach Teachers on Fitness
New Forecasting Tool Eyed for Hurricane Season
Meet MJ, the Bike Riding Tabby Cat
Britain Attack Believed Linked to Radical Islam
Raw: Kevin Durant Tours Moore After $1M Pledge
Man Shot While Questioned in Boston Probe
Weiner Launches Bid to Become NYC Mayor
School Storm Protection Spotty in Tornado Zones
Moore Native Toby Keith Tours Tornado Damage
