Modular, Modifiable Content Enables Teachers to Replace Expensive, One-Size Fits All Textbooks - Except in the Humanities
Community Review for CK-12
My Take
CK-12 is most useful for busy teachers with the insight, and motivation to produce their own multimedia enhanced textbooks but who do not have time to start from scratch. Though marketed directly to students, CK-12 functions best as digital library/laboratory for teachers to select, enhance, and compile modular content into books and courses that can be distributed on and offline. Like Wikipedia, the quantity and quality of these modular components varies considerably. Benefitting from millions in government and foundation support for STEM subjects, Science and Math resources are abundant, varied and of almost uniformly high quality. In contrast, the offerings in English and SAT exam prep are scarce and in the latter case, bear the marks of hasty development by inexperienced interns.
How I Use It
I am using CK-12 Science/Social Science Content to build bilingual digital textbooks for use by Chinese high school students preparing for American Advanced Placement Exams. Specifically, we are downloading CK-12 modules and combining them in an epub format that students access through a free E-Reading Platform (Zo-Reader). Into Zo Reader we have loaded an English-Chinese pop-up dictionary that enables students to click on any word in the text to get its English pronunciation, Chinese translation and the ability to generate vocabulary flashcards for independent study.. Replacing expensive, hard to understand all English AP textbooks, CK-12 flexbooks provide English language support not only to students but to their Chinese subject-area AP teachers for whom English-only teaching can be difficult and frustrating.
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