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To book or not To book, That is the question

Posted on Oct 3, 2012 by Dan Armstrong Latest activity: Feb 23, 2013

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The knee jerk reaction to do you buy books or not is simple. Throw out the books and use a flipped classroom setting. Well I've been trying that and here is what I have discovered, My freshman need individual instruction. I have also discovered that I can't even get them to complete the work in class with a Teachers Aid present. I'm introducing them to the MAC OS, a Wacom Tablet, and Adobe all at the same time .On one hand you have book with great projects and it is aligned to standares for Adobe Certification. On the other you create more class time for working on projects. I can tell I need something concrete for my beginners. I would love to hear what you think about this.

Comments (3)

Lukas Engqvist

Posted on Feb 23, 2013 8:55 PM - Permalink

I'm for a combination of books and other media. I find students have a hard time with the borderless aspect of a laptop per student. There is just too much distracting them if they run into a problem. Leaving (or pointing them) to find tutorials on the web there is just so many adds, videos, games and links that are tempting to click on… and then the student is lost for some time. I try to give students big enough projects to work with so that I have enough time to go around to all students. I wish I had books to support me, but the headmaster at the school does not believe in books. I lend students books from my own library… wish there was a budget to buy in enough books. I try to point students to tv.adobe.com till I get time to give them help.

Melissa Piccone

Posted on Jan 31, 2013 4:05 AM - Permalink

It's nice to have a book too refer to. I teach adults, who keep their books. Mine are full of scribbles and I encourage them to take notes and write in their books. It helps to jog their memories later. I've tried switching to ebooks, but it's not the same as being able to grab the book off the shelf when you need it and see your notes.

Joseph Labrecque

Posted on Dec 4, 2012 5:25 PM - Permalink

I use a variety of materials for my classes- usually a book along with web video, articles, blog posts, and so forth.

I imagine the variety of materials keeps teh students interest as well.