Third Activity: The Dark Side of Textbooks

From our point of view, one of the best activities that we have done during this course in School Organization and Educational Resources and one that has opened our eyes has been the activity named “The dark side of textbooks”.

Basically, the task that we were supposed to do was making a presentation against the use of textbooks as basic resources in a classroom. And for doing it we had to decide which format we will use, we could choose a comic, an infographic, a fable, a twitter timeline or a series of TV advertisements. At the end, our group decided to make the presentation creating three different TV advertisements.
 

In order to make this activity we had to read a lot of information for having our ideas clear and for thinking in an appropriate way what we were going to say against the use of textbooks. After reading everything we thought in three different ideas for making the three advertisements. 

Here you can see the final result of our TV advertisements: 

 

As in every activity that we have done all the members of the group had a different role; Amelia was the first star, Andrea was the Facilitator, Noelia was the analyst, Laura was the journalist, Verónica was the translator, Nerea was curator-farmer and Gloria was the second star. 

Basically, what we have learnt with this activity is that textbooks are just tools that can help the teachers during their processes of teaching and also, the students when they have to study or when they didn’t understand something in class. But, it doesn’t mean that these have to be used at every moment, these are just supporting tools and teachers have to consider other resources for their classrooms. As future teachers we don’t want to limit ourselves to read the textbooks so, we have to be up-dated and know all the resources that are available for us. It will make our teaching classes more fun for our students and they won’t be so repetitious and bored. 

Here we are posting the more important concepts of this activity from our point of view:

1. Textbook: A textbook or coursebook is a manual of instruction in any branch of study. Textbooks are produced according to the demands of educational institutions. Although most textbooks are only published in printed format, many are now available as online electronic books.

Textbook. (2014, April 30). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:09, June 1, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Textbook&oldid=606508511

2. Publishing: Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature, music, or information, the activity of making information available to the general public. In some cases, authors may be their own publishers, meaning: originators and developers of content also provide media to deliver and display the content for the same.

Publishing. (2014, June 1). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:09, June 1, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Publishing&oldid=611001298

3. Advertising: Advertising or advertizing in business is a form of marketing communication used to encourage, persuade, or manipulate an audience (viewers, readers or listeners; sometimes a specific group) to take or continue to take some action. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common. This type of work belongs to a category called affective labor.

Advertising. (2014, May 28). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:10, June 1, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Advertising&oldid=610513533

4. Government: the system or form by which a community is ruled.

Government. In Wordreference, Online Language Dictionaries. Retrieved 19:50, June 1, 2014, from http://www.wordreference.com/definition/government 

5. De-professionalization: It is a process in which the range and professional competence are disqualified. It aims to gradually reduce and eliminate the quality and qualities that characterize a professional training and career university. De-professionalization provokes teachers to lose autonomy and creativity. In addition, this leads to a didactic immobility.

Give me 7 (Monday, 17 March 2014). I am the translator in "The Dark Side of Textbooks", from http://giveme7blog.blogspot.com.es/search/label/4.The%20Dark%20Side%20of%20Textbooks

About this activity, as a group we think that we deserve a 9 because, as we think, we put a lot of time, effort and dedication in making videos; making sure that everything was fine, even the smallest detail. And the final result of the advertisement was great and our partners enjoyed them as much as we did.

Individually, we think we deserve the following grades (from 1 to 10):

-Amelia Avilés Carrión: 8, because apart from the work that we have done all together she has worked at home by herself editing the videos.

-Andrea Bermúdez Sánchez: 7, because she has done what was necessary to do and also she contributed several ideas.

-Laura Clemente Sánchez: 7, because she is always available for work and gives her best.

-Noelia Clemente Tolinos: 8, because she has drawn a part that was necessary for the advertisements and also gave a lot of good ideas.

-Verónica Costa González: 7, because she recorded her-self at home and has given a lot of ideas to the group.

-Nerea García Barceló: 7, because she always does what she is supposed to do and has contributed many good ideas as the rest of the group.

-Gloria García Hortelano: 8, because she has worked very hard and also had to work at home editing a video.