[P1] iBook article in the NYT

[david]

On Thursday, March 6, 2003, at 01:01  AM, Tubadude wrote:

> You know, part of the problem with the heaviness of the books is that 
> the
> publishers are sort of dumbing-down the content. They seem to feel 
> that the
> students can't learn the material without a lot of colorful pictures,
> charts, and diagrams, thereby increasing the page count. I think there 
> is a
> lot of padding in the books that doesn't need to be there. I was 
> surprised
> at all the extra stuff in my 5th grader's books.
>
Pictures, graphs, diagrams...is it a question of dumbing down or is it 
a question of trying to appeal to different learning styles? Chances 
are most of us here on this list can learn effectively by reading. But 
that is the exception, not the rule. There are 7 different learning 
styles. Some learn best by hearing, others by reading, some by doing, 
others by seeing, etc.

All of us have a dominant learning style - even among the literate, 
learning by reading as the dominate learning style is not common. 
Publishers are including all those colorful graphics, graphs, and 
diagrams because they are an effective way to enhance learning.

BTW, all the books I use in my classes come in print and PDF form. I 
give my high school students their books and a CD containing the books, 
all their assignments for the term, my presentations, auxiliary 
materials, and even old evaluations (test) so they’ll have an idea what 
to expect. My college students get a similar CD from the bookstore.

david

=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
Good qualities are easier to destroy than bad ones, and therefore
uniformity is most easily achieved by lowering all standards.
  ~~ Bertrand Russell

David