Kareena Dhillon
Executive Opinion Editor
The 2018-19 school year began with new changes, including the math department’s switch to online textbooks for all Precalculus classes. This change has led to increased confusion and has caused a tiring political battle within the district. While the use of online textbooks could be very helpful for students and cost-efficient, it should not have been introduced as the last and only resort.
After teachers gained access to the online textbook, they introduced the platform to students around the third week of school. Each student must make an account with Cengage, a digital platform to access textbooks. Students have to link that same account with a website known as WebAssign to gain access to the e-book and any assignments.
In the past, Costa has faced problems with insufficient copies of books or students failing to return them by the end of the year. With an online textbook, students can access the material whenever they please. However problems surface when students do not have WiFi or large enough screens to read the material. Software updates also pose challenges. Just this week while trying to use the textbook, I could not even pull up the book because my Adobe flash was not updated. After troubleshooting and updating the problem is still not fixed, making even a laptop useless—which is absurd.
Online books could be beneficial considering the current inability to check out books from the library. Now the district has amended the textbook allotment to barely 16 books per class, which will cause students to have to share.
The Precalculus online textbooks are free for students, and all textbooks legally must be provided for students. Online textbooks provide a cost-effective alternative to hardcover textbooks which can often cost the school and students hundreds of dollars.
However, in a study granted by Cengage Learning comparing students’ preference of a printed textbook to a digital version, 75% preferred the former. Similarly, 60% said they would rather buy a low-cost print copy even if the digital book were free. Students today still prefer to be able to highlight and use their resources in a more hands-on mechanisms. Although Math Department co-chair Linda Gesualdi described the introduction of the online textbooks as a tedious process, a savvy alternative is overall welcome in the math department.
However, Cengage has multiple flaws. For example, students are not able to look at the textbook and complete an assignment simultaneously. To do so they must open multiple tabs, which is difficult on some devices. This difficulty might impact the course curriculum and fluidity of Pre-Calculus classes. This will continue in negatively impacting students as they try to learn the subject throughout the year.
Gesualdi stated it would be the most beneficial to have a complete class set, a textbook for each student to take home and an online textbook. In response, the Manhattan Beach Unified School Board stated that they could not afford to comply with this need, despite the Williams Settlement in the Williams v. State of California case of 2004 established a suficiency standard for instructional materials in all California public schools. The foundation of the case claimed the State was denying education by not providing materials to students, which can be compared and is completely relevant to the current situation here at Mira Costa. All students should have access to textbooks or instructional materials in four core subject areas for use in the classroom, and be able to take them home. This law does include digital materials so long as students can access them at school and at home. The district seems to be about politics, and students have not had a say in the matter.
Physical textbooks allow students to interact more with the actual text, which may contribute to an increased retention of the material and better exam scores. The introduction of the online textbook to Pre-Calculus is a new adjustment for students, and a valuable resource to have on mobile devices to take where large textbooks are not feasible. However action by the district raises the question as whether they are abiding by state law. MBUSD has catered to different departments of the school and renovations seem to be perpetual. However the question remains: has MBUSD drawn the line at supplying textbooks for every student?
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