schoolbooks going digital (Arnold: how much, to buy, tax)

[TristramShandy]

Originally Posted by ImRandy

Which leads to the college level scam where professors photocopy parts of articles, staple them together, call it a book and charge you $75 for it.

A) College professors make zero dollars from that. Unless the content is their own, they're not seeing dime one of that money.

B) That price for the packet is for copyright clearance - - and it is almost always for the student's benefit (rather than buying multiple whole books where only 40 pages are used and paying even more money).

[Cacumen667]

Yes I think this is for grade school - high school.
When I was in college about half of my courses utilized online texts and lesson plans (this was in Connecticut)

Originally Posted by hoffdano

This may be a great idea. But can't California just sit tight on stuff like this for a while? Let another state try it on a big scale so California can learn from it?

This won't suddenly improve CA schools. It may produce operational efficiencies but that could break down in a hurry if Johnny or Susie's computer won't boot or they forgot to charge the battery.

Just say NO for three years until the budget is fixed.

....well according to the article, initial savings from the plan would be between 300-400 million dollars. If that's true, then great!

[hoffdano]

Originally Posted by Cacumen667

....well according to the article, initial savings from the plan would be between 300-400 million dollars. If that's true, then great!

If I were a taxpayer in California, I would want to hear more about this. Don't believe it on face value.

Each school will have to add IT staff to support the electronics and equipment. They will have to write many new policies and procedures that tolerate equipment failures. How many new "my dog ate my homework" excuses will arise? How will the plan support likely excuses for a school that suffers a drop in test scores?

People will find a new blame spot for all of their academic problems.

[ImRandy]

Originally Posted by SOON2BNSURPRISE

I don't think we are talking about college level course work here.

Which is why I made sure to clarify my comment.

[ImRandy]

Originally Posted by TristramShandy

A) College professors make zero dollars from that. Unless the content is their own, they're not seeing dime one of that money.

B) That price for the packet is for copyright clearance - - and it is almost always for the student's benefit (rather than buying multiple whole books where only 40 pages are used and paying even more money).

C) Regardless if the professor, the school, the printer, the bookstore, or anyone else makes a profit it's unconscionable to require students to purchase and charge $75 for a small stack of bad photocopies of commonly available newspapers and magazines that are barely if at all referenced in the class.

[MisterDuke]

Originally Posted by hoffdano

If I were a taxpayer in California, I would want to hear more about this. Don't believe it on face value.

Each school will have to add IT staff to support the electronics and equipment. They will have to write many new policies and procedures that tolerate equipment failures. How many new "my dog ate my homework" excuses will arise? How will the plan support likely excuses for a school that suffers a drop in test scores?

People will find a new blame spot for all of their academic problems.

It's interesting if it really does work out to be a savings, but I would want to hear more about the implementation. Our textbooks were replaced every 7 years. How often would these laptops need to be replaced? Certainly more frequently than that.

[hoffdano]

Originally Posted by MisterDuke

It's interesting if it really does work out to be a savings, but I would want to hear more about the implementation. Our textbooks were replaced every 7 years. How often would these laptops need to be replaced? Certainly more frequently than that.

I think the idea has merit. But again - I just think voters should be very skeptical that the plan is really ready for prime time. I just think California should batten the hatches (so to speak) for a while and let someone else do this first. I just don't think this is a NEED right now. It sounds like a WANT - and California has no money for WANTs.

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

Originally Posted by ImRandy

Which is why I made sure to clarify my comment.

I missed the clarification in your post. Could you state it again. For clarification here is your original post:


Which leads to the college level scam where professors photocopy parts of articles, staple them together, call it a book and charge you $75 for it.

[bayarea-girl]

How can CA afford these new implementations? According to the state we can't. So I don't understand the presentation of the whole idea unless it means that we have to pay for it in some way (higher taxes, computer purchases directly from the state, tech fees that we might be asked to pay for up front at the beginning of school)?

[harhar]

I can believe the forecasted savings.

Textbooks are at least $60 a book, times 5 or 6 subjects for about 2000-3000 students (in a high school).

If in fact we were able to get a reader for let's say $100 for each student and download or import the texts, that could be "written in" for a fraction of the price of a hard copy.

The problem is that it would be implemented horribly, or that textbook makers would charge full price for the "downloadable texts."

The cool thing would be a blanket license for the school or district so that if the kid loses the "reader" the school would only be out $100.

And since it is one device you would keep better tracking stats if every student has one device rather than a mish-mash of assorted books.

They could be GPS tracked, or whatever; the possibilities could be limitless with a digital reader.

For lost or damaged readers you can charge them just like a lost or stolen book.

Plus you could make it so that the reader is only used for textbook stuff.

I see it more as a financial and logistical solution for schools. NOT a remedy for low test scores. "E-Books" I believe will be cheaper in the long run.

It WOULD be cool if the textbook was more like a laptop in that it would play video and sounds, but ONLY inside the context of the textbook. That might grab more kid's attention. However I still believe that this would mainly be a financial saver.

I write this (fragmented) as I'm currently writing and accepting hundreds of textbook fines where I work.