Comments on: McGraw-Hill’s new adaptive ebooks aim to adjust to students’ learning needs http://gigaom.com/2013/01/08/mcgraw-hills-new-adaptive-ebooks-aim-to-adjust-to-students-learning-needs/ Wed, 22 May 2013 16:40:59 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: mhbaumk12 http://gigaom.com/2013/01/08/mcgraw-hills-new-adaptive-ebooks-aim-to-adjust-to-students-learning-needs/#comment-1298096 Sat, 12 Jan 2013 19:12:35 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=599987#comment-1298096 I agree, data showing e-books are superior would be great. But I don’t expect data – at least not reliable data – in the short term or even the long term. First of all it’s extremely difficult to tease out the effects of curriculum of any kind from all the other influences on student achievement (when was the last time you saw a solid third-party research study on the efficacy of a textbook?). Secondly when one does research on curriculum, the effect sizes are almost always minimal and short-lived. Thirdly, it is far more likely that, at least in the short term, test scores will do DOWN, not up, since that’s the usual result of any change in curriculum, even switching from one conventional textbook to another. One reason for that is simply that teachers need time to learn to teach with the new material, and the lick-and-promise PD usually provided for a new curriculum doesn’t do it. That, to me, is the scary part of the pell-mell rush to “digital textbooks.” Schools are making huge changes in the fundamental means of instruction without a clue as to the outcomes.

]]> By: Jersey http://gigaom.com/2013/01/08/mcgraw-hills-new-adaptive-ebooks-aim-to-adjust-to-students-learning-needs/#comment-1296884 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 13:05:11 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=599987#comment-1296884 Considering how many high schools have implemented e-books in the last 2-3 years I’m puzzled by the lack of independent data showing that students are more successful with e-books.

It may be too early to tell but to me that implies that either studies have not been completed (which I find hard to swallow) or they have not figured out a good way to interpret the data that would present e-book learning in a positive enough light.

The data would be suspect regardless. But even if it was presented with a bunch of caveats (“We found them to be most effective for middle school students with red hair, that own a dog, during the last night of the full moon”) it would imply that they are at least a benefit to some groups of students.

]]> By: Liz http://gigaom.com/2013/01/08/mcgraw-hills-new-adaptive-ebooks-aim-to-adjust-to-students-learning-needs/#comment-1296318 Wed, 09 Jan 2013 12:10:32 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=599987#comment-1296318 I can’t imagine that ebooks lead to better results than the standard books

]]> By: dbrownblogs http://gigaom.com/2013/01/08/mcgraw-hills-new-adaptive-ebooks-aim-to-adjust-to-students-learning-needs/#comment-1296142 Tue, 08 Jan 2013 19:14:43 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=599987#comment-1296142 Reblogged this on EDUTech and commented:
Super important move @ CES for sure.

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