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by johanneskanybal 85 days ago
It sounds good on paper (pun intended) but policy strikes again, "Can my kid bring home her math book so we can work on the parts she's struggling with?" No of course not it lives in a cupboard at school 90% of the time might get some screen shares from it.
3 comments
kleiba 85 days ago
Interesting. Where we currently live, kids carry all books back and forth between home and school every day in giant backpacks.
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galdauts 85 days ago
Back when I went to school in Germany, we had a locker at school, but I just took the books I needed for assignments home with me. I haven't heard of schools that don't let you take (loaned) books home.
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elminjo 85 days ago
this is a problem. we make photos of the pages. i think there should be always a digital option when you have a physical book.
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MSFT_Edging 85 days ago
It sounds like the major issue here is the access to information. It's not the fault of the medium but rather the IP rights around it. Books are expensive because the text book industry needs their cut. Schools need to protect the expensive books because children can and will impulsively throw one off a bridge on their walk home.

The digital editions are restricted due to IP, so you can't have an infinitely copyable version for reference at home to solve the issue of children being destructive sometimes. So you end up with the worst of both worlds.

We could theoretically teach kids to convert cubits to feet and give them a translated version of the same ancient egyptian geometry textbooks used to educate the architects of the pyramids. Triangles aren't new. Why has there not been an opensource/creative commons math textbook made available to all schools with a issues board for crowd sourcing correctness?

This could be done with discrete periods of history, sciences, math, etc. We really don't need the McGraw Hill 2026 Florida Patriot's edition of the 18th century American history textbook.

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zozbot234 85 days ago
Open content textbooks are widely available, it's just a matter of adoption by the students.
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MSFT_Edging 85 days ago
> it's just a matter of adoption by the students.

I don't think it's the students who are signing textbook deals.

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fastasucan 85 days ago
Or every student have the books they need, and are free to bring them home.
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signa11 85 days ago
why not just buy 2 sets ? problem solved ?
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