"I buy hundred dollar textbooks that I never open," is a phrase that really caught my attention while I was watching Dr. Wesch give his talk. The reason being, of course, it is something I probably would've typed on my computer during my undergrad. This isn't to say I didn't learn anything or didn't open any textbooks. Inevitably I had to so I could study and pass a test. The "textbooks" that I really was interested in though were those books that I genuinely wanted to read and learn from. Being an English major, most of the time these types of books were novels.
To me, the idea of a textbook is a somewhat outdated one. It seems like with the advent and mindblowingly huge use of the internet today, textbooks are almost obsolete. You can literally get on the internet and find out just about anything you could possibly want to know. All you need is a wifi connection at your local Starbucks. Which is why during my undergrad I hardly ever had to open a textbook. Why read through an incredibly boring book when the information I need is just a few clicks away?
Although as Dr. Wesch said, this privilege many have can be abused. Left to their own devices, most students (especially younger ones) don't have the maturity or focus to "learn" themselves. This is where teachers come in. Teachers can guide them, provide adequate individual instruction, and sometimes even provide a relationship that is more akin to a parent or mentor, something many students are missing in their lives. What teachers can do that is very difficult for the internet to do is teach students to be "open, caring, sharing, collaborative, self-motivated, and voracious."
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