Customer Reviews

Teaching and Learning with Technology (4th Edition)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I had to read this book for a Technology and Education class, and it was a total waste of time and money. I'm a professional computer consultant in the middle of a Masters in Education, so I feel qualified to discuss the technical aspects of this book.

While this book was Copyrighted in 2005, almost all the pictures and content are so dated I think that little has changed since the first edition. A Third edition has just been released, which may be more up to date, but I feel it will be just as useless.

The main problem with this book is that it covers everything with no regard to technical ability. For instance, the book informs the reader what a scanner is, and then says they can be usefull for converting a printed page to editable text on the computer. If you are learning what a scanner is for the firs time today, then you AREN'T ready to start using OCR to import documents. In other places, it says floppy disks (yes, the 3.5 disks) are useful for storing information (most computers don't even accept floppy disks).

Additionally, the book is entirely pro-microsoft. It briefly touches upon 'free' software as it distinguishes between shareware and freeware, but doesn't mention Free/Libre Open Source Software. Between Sakai, Open Office, Firefox, and the myriad of other programs, this is inconceivable. All the pictures are for Word, Outlook, and Internet Explorer. It also makes no mention of Apple Computers (at least I didn't find any) or GNU Linux/*BSD.

Finally, it is filled with cute buzzwords that mean nothing, at least to me, such as "The DID's formative feedback look ensures performance objective validity." which appeared on the sidebar with a lightbulb.

Basically, if you don't know anything about technology, this book will be of no use, as much of it will gloss over what you need to learn, and if you are already a competent computer user, this book will be dated and provide scattered information that might have been helpful 5 years ago.

I would recomend not buying this book. If you are a teacher and want to see how technology can be used in your classroom (without learning useless information like what a POST is) I'd try Will Richardson's Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts. That was useful and interesting, while not being too technical.

This is a required text for a class I'm taking. It's a waste of money. What's sound (the basics on skinner, piaget, etc ad nauseum) is already in every other education textbook and the technology segments are dated, frequently wrong, and assume you are mentally retarded.

Does anyone really need to be told what a keyboard is? For 2 pages? Book also has a profound Microsoft bias and seems to openly deny that anything else exists.

Avoid, if possible.

This type of learning should not be taught with a traditional textbook, anyway. This particular one suffers from poor layout, way too many colors, and fonts that strain the eye.

Don't get me wrong; there is some useful information to be found in this book. But the writing style is incredibly tedious and pretentious. The authors will almost never say anything directly, such as "teachers prepare lesson plans". Instead, they will say, "teachers craft learning events". You never "teach", you "facilitate a learning experience". I was tempted to put together some buzz-word bingo cards. All I can say is, I'm VERY glad that I was able to get it from the Amazon marketplace at a significant markdown; there's no way it was worth list price, or even anything close to it.

This is the only lesson I learned from this textbook-purchasing experience: textbooks sold through Amazon or other third-party vendors often do NOT come with valid access codes for the online tools some professors (like mine) require.
I had a brand new, unused code come along with this book (as you can see by the Amazon description, "with myeducation kit") and ended up communicating with the book publisher's technical support crew for way too much time just to figure out that Amazon gave me an invalid code for the book. Apparently this happens frequently with third party vendors.

The class is a joke. Teachers or upcoming teachers should already know these basics. This is why Education in America has gone to heck.

I am very pleased and satisfied with my book order purchase. The book was processed and shipped to me the same day I ordered it. I was hoping to receive it ASAP and I did. The book is in better condition than what I expected it to be in. I would deffinently order more products from this vendor.

This book was required for a Masters of Education course. I just received the book brand new and unopened. As I began to read, it was intereting to see that it included an online tool, called "myeducationkit". Great I thought, what an appropriate feature for a technology instruction book. Unfortunatley it took me hours to discover that I had not purchased this feature. This is not good marketing Pearson. Am I going to have this problem if I purchase a set of classroom textbooks? You should be showcasing your features to your greatest sales-force - the teachers that use them! Amazon - you must make it clearer that the book does not include the Access Code. The book itself has small type and the paper is thin (almost like a magazine). This is the first time I have complained about a book purchase from Amazon. The shipping was good, and the book arrived in good condition, in around one week. The content looks fine, and interestingly laid out. It seems to cover the many technologies available well.

Good book depending on what you need accomplished. This helped with mandatory work for my online Education program.

This book was a great buy; much cheaper than my college bookstore, and I was happy that it was brand new and came with the code for the online education tools.