Luv Bunnies
DIS Veteran
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- Sep 3, 2006
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Another thread reminded me of this. DS's high school is slowly moving toward using online textbooks for all subjects. The language department was first last year, so his Spanish 1 textbook was online. The students were told they could request actual books, but they had a very limited number and parents had to sign a form saying they didn't have access to a computer or a reliable Internet connection. We have both, so we went with the online version.
Spanish turned out to be a really difficult subject for DS. Between having a teacher who gave vague instructions for assignments and having to scroll through an online textbook that was very slow to download, he ended up very frustrated. I tried to help him find a particular topic once and was able to see just how hard it was. We went to the table of contents and found generally where the information might be. So we click on the chapter, then click on the section, then start scrolling through pages. Can't find it. So we go to the index. Takes forever to load. Can't find exactly what we need. So we go back to the chapter and section and think maybe we missed it so we start scrolling through again. The pages load slowly so we end up waiting a long time for each one. Some of the charts and boxed information is really small so we have to enlarge that part just to read it. Then you can't see the whole page at one time so you have to keep enlarging, going back to regular view, loading new pages, etc. It would have been so much easier and faster to grab a book and flip through it.
His Honors Biology and Algebra classes had regular books. The homework in those classes took him a lot less time and there was no frustration factor. I'm seriously thinking of asking for a regular textbook for his Spanish 2 class next year. But, I don't want to take one away from a student who really needs it because they don't have a computer or Internet connection at home. I'd even be willing to buy or rent a book for him if I have to. It was that bad trying to use the online version.
Anyone else had experience with online textbooks? Good or bad? I know they're the "wave of the future," but I sure don't like them!
Spanish turned out to be a really difficult subject for DS. Between having a teacher who gave vague instructions for assignments and having to scroll through an online textbook that was very slow to download, he ended up very frustrated. I tried to help him find a particular topic once and was able to see just how hard it was. We went to the table of contents and found generally where the information might be. So we click on the chapter, then click on the section, then start scrolling through pages. Can't find it. So we go to the index. Takes forever to load. Can't find exactly what we need. So we go back to the chapter and section and think maybe we missed it so we start scrolling through again. The pages load slowly so we end up waiting a long time for each one. Some of the charts and boxed information is really small so we have to enlarge that part just to read it. Then you can't see the whole page at one time so you have to keep enlarging, going back to regular view, loading new pages, etc. It would have been so much easier and faster to grab a book and flip through it.
His Honors Biology and Algebra classes had regular books. The homework in those classes took him a lot less time and there was no frustration factor. I'm seriously thinking of asking for a regular textbook for his Spanish 2 class next year. But, I don't want to take one away from a student who really needs it because they don't have a computer or Internet connection at home. I'd even be willing to buy or rent a book for him if I have to. It was that bad trying to use the online version.
Anyone else had experience with online textbooks? Good or bad? I know they're the "wave of the future," but I sure don't like them!
