Literature Review 2: "A Technological Reinvention of the Textbook: A Wikibooks Project"

We had briefly discussed using wikis as textbooks in an earlier class this semester and it brought to mind a few questions about the efficacy of this practice. In this regard, I was hoping to find an article that would delve a little deeper into this area. Luckily, I found, "A Technological Reinvention of the Textbook", which was written by Patrick M. O'Shea, James C. Onderdonk, Douglas Allen and Dwight W. Allen. It appeared in the Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, v27 n3 p109-114 Spr 2011. 6 pp. The link to this article is: http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/EJ918902.pdf.
  The authors of this article believe that the standard textbook is, "...outdated and in need of reconceptualization" (p.109). They state a number of reasons for this belief, but perhaps the most important is the speed in which information is changing in today's society. The authors believe that the "lengthy publication schedule for textbooks" (p.109) essentially renders them obsolete by the time they reach students. One solution to this problem that the authors discuss briefly in this article is the use of e-books as textbooks. These would still have the same format as a textbook, but could be kept current with "real time updates" (p.110) by the original author of the text, thus still keeping them credible. E-books could also utilize multimedia options and links to other sources (p.110). To me, this seems like a great alternative to the current textbook model. Having a constantly current and evolving text would be a great way to keep students engaged using existing technology that is relatively cheap and easily accessible.
However, the authors do not believe this is the most viable option for the future. They favor the student created wiki as the best alternative to today's textbooks, because it makes the learning experience "...integrative, revolving around the students and their ability to find, analyze and report information..." (p.112). In this approach, the course textbook is created by the students as part of the course itself. At first, this seems like a good idea, but it does beg the question, when and how is the textbook used exactly? If the majority of the coursework is spent actually creating the text, then it kind of defeats the purpose of having a textbook in the first place. Also, the authors state that to create the textbook, they had individual students work specifically on one subject (p.111). In this regard, it would appear that these students are only gaining knowledge in one very specific area of the course and will be lacking in many others.
It seems to me that most of what the authors are trying to achieve with this project can be done in other ways. Having students do multi-genre projects or other student centered activities still provides them with choices in how they learn and gives them the opportunity to use the skills that were mentioned earlier that the authors believe are so important. Using e-books as a textbook is a great way to supplement this learning while still moving forward in enhancing the student experience through technology.