1. (Open)
Textbooks,
Educational
Content &
Knowledge
Norm Friesen
&
Irwin DeVries

2. Overview
• What is educational content?
• Challenges in thinking about educational
content
• Textbooks and content:
– Content structures and dynamics in textbooks
– Series, Hierarchy, Network/CORE Cycle
– Other design issues
• Two Examples: Elsevier versus Wikibooks

3. Content
"We learn anywhere, anytime, anyplace;
there are opportunities to learn all around us
everyday. We learn in the home, office, on
the road. Likewise, educational content can
be shaped to fit all kinds of useful delivery
media that is convenient, user-friendly, and
(most important) serves the educational
need of members without the content being
shortchanged or trivialized." Smith, J.(2001)

4. Constructivism
• Emphasize knowledge construction, not
reproduction
• Providing complex learning environments
that incorporate authentic (scientific)
activity.
• Support multiple perspectives and the use
of multiple modes of representation.
• Case-based/problem-based learning
• Represent the natural complexity of the
real world

6. Chambliss & Calfee Textbooks
for Learning
• “textbooks come in layers, something like
an onion. The entire book, the outer husk,
as signaled in the table of contents seldom
receives the attention it deserves.”
• How are the layers of the textbook
constituted and combined?
• Through structures on the level of sections
and rhetoric (“rhetorical patterns”)

10. How is this done?
• Connect: examples, relevant images,
aesthetics, questions
• Organize: design - column(s), page,
section, chapter, table(s) of contents;
rhetoric: structures covered above
• Reflect: exercises, discussion,
references and reviews, questions
• Extend: examples, exercises, questions

11. Conceptual Development
• First to Last • Problem and Solution
• Least to Most • Whole to Parts
Important
• Concept to
• Known to Unknown Description
• Cause and Effect • Similarities and
Differences
• General and Specific
Instances • Spatial ordering

12. http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/explodedviews/280z/exploded%20l28.gif

13. http://www.scienceclarified.com/everyday/images/scet_01_img0015.jpg

15. http://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0014579305000104-gr1.jpg

16. These can all be combined:
How many Dimensions are there?

17. Sample (e)Textbook features
• Instructor tools • Learner tools
– Instructor support side – Discussion questions
– Presentation slides – Extended learning support
– – Exam prep
Class outlines
– Flash cards
– Extended resources
– Mobile access
– LMS-like tools
– CD ROMs
– Customization – Search
– Note-taking
– Highlighting
– Bookmarking

18. Traditional textbook
development processes
• Multiple authors
• Editors/proofreaders
• Media specialists
• Art department
• Designers
• Reviewers
• Production/technical
• Copyright specialists

23. “Psychology is an academic and applied discipline
involving the scientific study of
mental processes and behavior. Psych-
ology also refers to the application of such
knowledge to various spheres of human activity,
including relating to individuals’ daily lives and
the treatment of mental illness.”
“Psychology differs from the other social sciences
— anthropology, economics, political science, and
sociology — in that psychology seeks to explain
the mental processes and behavior of
individuals.

24. Pedagogical Knowledge
Exhibits a number of characteristics distinguishing
it from scientific knowledge. As a rule it ...
•only looks at a part of the whole
•(radically) simplifies this knowledge
•integrates it into a logical-seeming context
•avoids contradictions and exceptions
•makes knowledge appealing by means of various
tools (slides, films, experiments, murals)
•is taught with maximum efficiency