6-Year Increments
John Timmer of Ars Technica has a piece on California’s Governor Schwarzenegger move towards free, digital textbooks. He points to the economy as one key factor propelling the move, but the one I find particularly persuasive has to do with the very real limitations of a six-year textbook-review cycle, especially when it comes to math and science.
In announcing the decision, Governor Schwarzenegger also emphasized its pedagogical value. Printed textbooks, he noted, are on a six-year approval cycle, meaning that many recent historic and scientific events get left out of the classrooms.
Needless to say, the knowledge base of science and technology grows much faster than at six-year increments. Another interesting and related development will be the platform (e.g., Kindle’s .mobi?, ePub?)
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Ars Technica, John Timmer, California