I can't part with my textbooks. Each and every one, even from non-favorite classes, is a part of me and a part of my ever growing, vast and varied library. I hold onto them because I am semi-mental, er, sentimental and each is a great reference. What I failed to realize until just recently, is how valuable these 'old' texts really are.
My first time around in college, I don't remember a www anything in any of my texts. Now, you would be hard pressed to find one without a web address. Even my favorite Literature Book, A World of Ideas by Lee A. Jacobus, has a companion website. Admittedly, Jacobus had me, when in his preface he told of a student that had written to him and "demonstrated that every one of the selections in the book had been used as the basis of a Star Trek episode" (Jacobus).
If you followed the link to A World of Ideas, you will find the other reason I hold onto my texts. Granted this is an older edition, but the value it holds for me now and in the future far surpasses any sell back price I could get. Knowledge I absorb from each class, is at best, cursory. It is my responsibility to cultivate and reinforce what is given me if I am to make use of it in the future.
Companion websites are the venue for the Adult Learner. The second principle of Malcolm S. Knowles' six Core Adult Learning Principles is the Self Concept of the Learner: Autonomous and Self-Directing. Perhaps the Adult Learner wants to know more about the time and time period of a particular author's setting. Living conditions, social status, or lack thereof, gives the author a perspective on life that the reader, the inquisitive Adult Learner, can relate to. Companion sites hold annotated author and idea links, podcasts, tutorials, exercises, power-point presentations, quizzes, and a plethora of rich and varied multi-media. Some even have 24-hour interactive tutors or links to discussion boards on your topic of interest. E-Gads! I'm giddy at the thought of it all!
So, grab your old text, blow the dust off, look on the back cover, inside cover, or in some texts, on the bottom right hand side of the pages for the www, or as I like to call it: the Wide World of Wonder. Happy Treasure Hunting!
No Text on Hand? No worries. Use these to get you started
wwnorton.com/rockhistory (the two w's are intentional)
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2 comments:
Between the two of us, we could fill a library and educate more than a corner of the world. Your selection of reading material, and joy of sharing it with us, is definitely one of the highlights of this assignment.
Gone are the years of our youth that lacked the wonderful access to feed our ever increasing hunger for knowledge. Long live the web!
One of the saddest things I ever had to do was to take my personal library to a second-hand book store. I was moving from Ohio to Las Vegas, from a pretty big house to a two-bedroom apartment, and the time had come to give up something. I had hoarded books all my life but it just wasn't possible anymore. I didn't think I would ever recover - but between Wikipedia and the library I have survived.
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