
We have so many amazing learning aids available to us today that is is still fairly amazing to me that so many instructors hang all their hopes for student learning on textbook reading assignments and classroom lecture. We can do better. We have to understand that, while texts are important, they are not the be all and end all in learning. Read on, whether you currently agree or not. I've got an online presentation here that might help you or win you over.
This presentation is free and open to anyone interested in it. Make a copy of it and edit it if you like. I assert no copyright over the content within this presentation. In fact, smarter people than me came up with the data. I strongly encourage you to reference the two reports I mention in the presentation. They are outstanding.
I hope this Prezi is helpful in convincing you that total reliance on a textbook for learning is ridiculous. Expecting today's modern learner to read hundreds of pages from a textbook and then discuss it at length in class is preposterous. For better or worse, those days are behind us. From here, we can either chose to adapt how we teach and still convey important information to our students, or we can choose to vainly hold on tight to yesterday's instructional model while wondering why our students aren't learning and blaming them for our own shortcomings.
Comments welcome! Fly (and teach) safely, my friends!