For a great example of knowledge-wave thinking about education, take a look at the column about K-12 textbooks, written by Del. Christopher Peace, R-Mechanicsville, and published today in the Times-Dispatch. Peace doesn’t use the Toffleresque terminology of “Revolutionary Wealth” to put his argument into perspective, but I shall do it for him.
The problem, according to Peace, is that textbook publishers write their books for sale in California and Texas, with the result that educational agendas in those two states dictate content taught in the other 48. Furthermore, the books are expensive. Monopoly manufacturers sell two- to three-year-old textbooks at a premium to Virginia school districts almost as after-market goods. Translation into Toffler-ese: The textbook business is a classic case study of the industrial-wave, assembly-line, one-size-fits-all approach to education.
The Virginia Open Education Foundation is devising an end-run around Texas, California and the textbook publishers with the Virginia Open Textbook Project. The use of digital or print-on-demand technologies could save Virginia school systems a significant fraction of the $122 million a year spent on textbooks, Peace contends. Furthermore, “an open-education forum for print-on-demand textbooks could allow schools to digitally access and instantly deploy materials held in creative commons — similar to Wikipedia.”
Textbooks could be updated instantly to reflect critical new developments, such as the impact of 9/11 in social studies textbooks, or the demotion of Pluto from planet status in science textbooks. No more two- and three-year delays. Furthermore — Peace doesn’t say this, but it’s consistent with his logic — open-forum books could be easily customized for K-12 courses that come in different colors and flavors, encouraging experimentation and innovation in curricula. Translation into Toffler-ese: The Virginia Open Textbook Project exemplifies the potential of Knowledge Wave technologies and institutions to facilitate the inexpensive dissemination of knowledge.
