Textbooks No Longer Necessary
Alternative Resources for Learning Make Texts Obsolete
© D. Chen
Mar 13, 2008
As the world adapts to low-cost access internet technology, scholars today have enough means to complete entire courses without the necessity of textbooks. Times have changed. Information does not idle in text documents exclusively anymore. Data availability and growth have reached such incredible levels that traditional textbooks have become obsolete or at least close to it.
Schools Should Evolve Along With Technology
Granted, textbooks have served many scholars well throughout the past centuries. They simply can not match the exponential growth of technology. While academic institutions aim to enlighten and prepare individuals for the purpose of future societal contributions, the school systems could set an example by adjusting with social and technological evolutions.
Superior Internet Resources
Practically any individual in the developed world has access to the internet today. If not at home, the public libraries or school labs make it available for everyone during business hours. Connected and continuously reorganized, restructured, rationalized, an astronomical volume of information has become freely available. The dynamic nature of web space interactions offers its audience highly accurate and current data.
Ample Library Resources
Both school and public libraries offer an abundance of academic and literary works. Though slightly more time costly compared to internet access, whatever information extracted promotes just as much learning as the expensive textbook counterparts. The weekly programs of various courses usually cover a few sections (or pages) at a time, available copiers could provide outside reading as well at low cost.
Fellow Scholar Resources
When all else fails, approaching and questioning fellow students or lecturers remains yet another inexpensive step in the learning process. Traditional textbooks lack multiple perspectives on certain subjects, and it raises the need for additional clarification. Sometimes a second opinion could make the most painful complexities quick to resolve.
Lecturers Losing Need For Textbooks
The critical requirement of course lectures suggests the ineffectiveness of textbook reading exclusively. As traditional textbook questions do not always adhere to particular syllabus schemes, some instructors find it easier to create customized lecture themes from alternative sources. Therefore, even at the standpoint of modern teachers, textbooks have lost value.
Textbook-Free Policy Suggestion
Presently, academic textbooks cost a fortune, and they do not always provide more adequate information than the earlier suggested resources. When it comes down to it, they offer little to compete with the alternatives. The schools can dramatically lower student cost via textbook-free policies, and make the learning process slightly more affordable. All things considered, the time of hardbound textbooks has passed.
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