BoingBoing Takes on Textbooks
BoingBoing, one of our favorite blogs, has taken on the subject of textbook reform in a recent post. They lean heavily on a report issued to Congress in 2006 by Dr. James V. Koch, a special investigator on the subject, but they also link to rebuttals from the Industry.
The funniest and most trenchant rebuttal (or perhaps clarification) comes from Carl Pyrdum, a professor in Georgia, who explains why professors are not entirely to blame for the sad state of affairs. As a former teacher at a University myself, I share his frustration with the current system:
Meanwhile, the bookstore requires professors to jump through insane hoops to submit their book orders. Usually, they want the orders three months before you knew for sure your class was going to make.
BookFool’s response is simple: Give students information and options and let them make a decision based on their needs. That’s why we give them a second opinion on their used book values and automatically compare prices on books they buy online. This won’t solve all the textbook problems, but it’s our little way of helping students take charge of their textbook needs.
The comments on the BoingBoing post include some incredible insights about how students are finding their own (usually legal) workarounds to the textbook problem. Students know it’s a huge problem and are looking for ways to fix it.