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Using Online Textbooks

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I am pretty excited about today’s guest speaker – my husband Andrew! He teaches junior high and high school Social Studies at the same school district I work for. We’ve been here three full years now, and he LOVES that they have fully embraced technology by going with 1:1 ipads at his end of the building. (Yes, you read that correctly – our entire K-12 is in one building…well, most of them. We have two elementary schools.) Anyway, he’s going to share why to use online textbooks with you. Without further ado, here’s my hubby’s take on one-to-one ipads and online textbooks!
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using online textbooks

My name is Andrew and I am a high school social studies teacher.  I have taught world geography, world history, American government, and United States history over the past three years.  During these three years I have taught at a one-to-one iPad school for students in the ninth through twelfth grade.  An advantage with my current school is that they started implementing iPads the first year I came into the school district.  As a new teacher to the district, I felt that I was on a fair playing ground with the other teachers since we all had the same experience with the iPad.  Since I have this luxury, I have implemented the use of online textbooks for all my high school social studies classes.  Advantages to using textbooks on the iPad include engaging students, improving curriculum, and decreasing the weight of high school backpacks. 

 

As I stated before, I teach high school social studies and one of my major obstacles is to make history interesting to all students.  One of the ways that I have increased interest in history is by implementing technology in my class.  Since I work at a one-to-one iPad high school, I have implemented social studies textbooks to engage my students in the classroom. 

 
 I arrived at my current school three years ago, and most of the textbooks and curriculum material were outdated.  The high school was currently on a department using online textbooksrotation for new textbooks and social studies must have been skipped in the previous rotation.  To update my textbooks and curriculum I decided to get textbooks on the iPad with teacher’s curriculum.  After doing some research, I found out those textbooks on the iPad for social studies classes ranged from $15 to $25.  This price was dramatically less than the $80 and up for hard cover textbooks located on textbook company websites.  Along with the inexpensive prices, I could get a new textbook every year and possibly get an updated edition if one would be available.   
Along with the inexpensive price of the new textbooks, the textbooks would be Common Core aligned.  The textbooks had a free trial version that you could download and experiment with to see if you enjoyed the textbooks on the iPad.  I enjoyed the primary resources embedded into the textbook, videos about the current topic, and interactive quizzes after each section.   Lastly, the textbooks had functions such as highlighting text and adding notes to your highlighted text.  This function helps make my textbooks more interactive and remind myself of reading and highlighting text in college since I bought the books myself.  The reading, highlighting, and notes in the margins have replaced traditional note-taking in my class – which the students enjoy.  
Another advantage to the textbooks on the iPad is that they are easy to carry for the students.  Most history textbooks have to cover a large range of material making the textbooks heavy.  Instead of students carrying a ten pound textbook, the students carried around their iPad with the textbook on them.  The textbook on the iPad forced them to be responsible and bring their iPads to class (which they did not always do for the others teachers, even though they were supposed to).  Another problem was eliminated with students not being prepared for class and having their textbooks in their locker.  All the students enjoyed carrying around their Ipads which meant that I didn’t have the headache of delaying class for students to get their textbooks. 
Once I got the approval from administration to get textbooks on the iPad, I gradually improved my textbooks and curriculum for my high school social studies class.  I did not receive any new material my first year because I was busy learning the curriculum and textbooks for five preps of social studies classes.  The second year I received a new World History textbook with teacher’s edition.  The next year I received new world geography and American government textbooks with teacher’s edition.  The third year I received new United States history textbooks with teacher’s edition.  Every time I would get a new textbook and curriculum, I would get two hard cover textbooks in case a student lost or broke their iPad. 
 
During the past three years, my administration has supported me in putting textbooks on the iPad.  One reason would be the decreased price of the electronic copy of the textbooks.  Another reason would be it forces the students to use the iPads (which was the point to begin with!).  If the school spent the money on the iPads, the administration wanted to see the student use the devices. 

The only problem that I have experienced with the textbooks on the iPad would be that they take up space.  If you are the only teacher with a textbook on the device, your students can survive with a 16 gigabyte iPad.  If you have many teachers purchasing textbooks, I recommend that you upgrade to a 32 gigabyte Ipad. 

Overall, I have enjoyed using the textbooks on the iPad.  The textbooks engage students in learning and have many interactive features.  I enjoy implementing primary resources into every class and the textbooks on the iPad help me with primary resources embedded into each lesson.  Finally, students enjoy carrying around a light iPad in their backpacks instead of heavy social studies textbooks. 

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Questions or comments for my hubby? Ask below and I’ll make sure he answers them for you! ~HoJo~
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