Educational Technology Textbooks Must Be Different

I have taught undergraduate educational technology classes for teacher candidates for over three years now, and I have reviewed many different textbooks to see if they are worthy to be used in my classes. Most of these textbooks cost a fortune and none provided the level of interaction that I want to see in my classes. So I went on teaching without a textbook and just pulled in readings from different sources for the class. 

In my searching, I knew that a textbook on educational technology cannot be just like any other textbook. We teach about the future of teaching and learning in the Information Age. We talk about classrooms in which every student has a tablet computer. We share about the possibility of futuristic interactive digital textbooks that include videos, activities, slideshows, quizzes and more. But we do this all without using an interactive digital textbook as an example! Instead, paper-based textbooks do their best to tell students about the more advanced technologies out there, or worse, they hide their obsolescence by avoiding the topic of interactive digital textbooks altogether. 

So over a year ago, I decided to author my own educational technology textbook for undergraduate classes. Now it is out! Educational Technology for Teachers is the first ever multiplatform interactive digital textbook on educational technology and yes, there are videos, slideshows, visual stories, image tutorials, sample projects and quizzes built in to this interactive digital textbook. As mentioned in a previous post, I used Inkling Habitat to author the book. This book will not just tell, but show my students how to use technologies for teaching. Check it out and let me know what you think!