Visual Turn and the Transformation of the Textbook

Description

Is the emerging digital multimedia culture of today transforming the textbook or forever displacing it? As new media of transmission enter the classroom, the traditional textbook is now caught up in a dialogue reshaping the textual boundaries of the book, and with it the traditional modes of cognition and learning, which are bound more to language than to visual form. Most of the important work in the past two decades in the field of curriculum has focused on the culture of the textbook. A rich literature has evolved around textbooks as the traditional object of instructional activity. This vo ...  Read more... Abstract: The author of this text questions whether the emerging digital culture of the Internet is transforming the textbook or forever displacing it. He discusses how the new medium has entered the classroom and how this has reshaped the boundaries of the book, focusing on the actual design process.  Read more... Content: Contents: Introduction: Turning a Textbook Controversy on Its Head. Social Studies for the 21st Century. When Images Meet Words. Making the Beautiful Book. A Beautiful Book or "Considerate" Text. A Different Model of Reading. History as Our Best Guess. A Window in the Text. Face-to-Face or Interface: Social Studies in Cyberspace.