Introduction

If we are in the 21st century, why are 20th (and 19th) century tools so prevalent in our classrooms? What are 21st century tools? Here they are!

Learning Activity

Think of something you will be teaching, whether to children or to fellow employees. Find some resources to help you teach it. You can use the ones here or find your own. Since this is a class assignment, focus on finding something innovative that you really could use.

Outline of the Problem

Here is your basic problem with the traditional tool of learning, the textbook:

There are several problems with textbooks:

They are expensive
Since they are often written on contracts as "work for hire," the writing can be abysmal
An error in a textbook remains in printed copies unless each copy is annotated by hand with a correction
Writers of textbooks may not be experts in the areas about which they are writing
There may be financial conflicts of interest when textbook authors require students to buy the textbooks they have written
Textbook information may become quickly outdated

Alternatives to Textbooks

Teachers use textbooks, in part, as a matter of convenience; it is completely understandable that teachers do not want to have to reinvent all the material in a textbook because that is time consuming.

Fortunately, there is a strong movement toward providing educational information in the form of modules, websites, demonstrations, and so forth. Here are some resources of this sort.

Educational modules and resources

http://teacherswithoutborders.org/
http://cnx.org/
http://www.free.ed.gov/index.cfm
http://selfmadescholar.com/b/

Free college-level courses

You can often find really good learning materials within a unit of one of these courses (videos, audio files, handouts, etc.). Also, if you have students who are significantly advanced, they could benefit educationally from taking a college-level course or using the materials from a college-level class. There is nothing like preparing high school students for college by using materials from top-notch schools such as MIT, Tufts, or Notre Dame (all listed here).
http://www.academicearth.org/
http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm
http://ocw.jhsph.edu/
http://ocw.tufts.edu/
http://ocw.nd.edu/
http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/