The textbook is a problem that consistently plagues classrooms. At best, textbooks are innocuous, offering simple summaries of a very broad subject area. At worst, they oversimplify things, providing less information than an encyclopedia article without enough nuance or context to make it meaningful.
In this article, Jordan Shapiro suggests we need to move away from a top-down model of teaching, and also from the textbook. He explains that many ed-tech entrepreneurs are currently attempting to address this problem with games and electronic media. Game-based learning and electronic media enable us to blur the boundaries that separate the delivery of content, drilling for practice, and assessment. And in an educational atmosphere where those boundaries dissolve, the textbook becomes obsolete. There is still academic content but that content suddenly becomes interactive.
The texts can be more easily and immediately tied directly into a broad set of activities and projects. Video and other multimedia content can be integrated right into the text enabling the kind of flipped instruction that is rapidly becoming popular.