Can I ask a slightly off topic question. Pearson do some materials for the NZ curriculum (my kid's teachers don't use textbooks at this point (y2/g1) but I want to know what it is they are supposed to be learning. The etexts are a lot cheaper for just a look but I was wondering would they work on windows XP or on a windows phone? That is all I have right now.
Only if you purchase access-- or if you work through a web-portal that is a subscriber.
They are major data hogs, too-- so do be aware of that if you're working on a plan with a cap on your data. They're pretty clunky in terms of navigation, but sure-- for just a look-see, as long as you don't mind paying...
They are so-so in terms of user friendliness, and also so-so in terms of writing and content. They certainly aren't better QUALITY than the standard print editions, and I suspect that they'll get worse with time, as textbook manufacturers (Pearson chief among them) figure out "why try harder" as they have so much market share and entrenchment into exclusive partnerships that quality is really not even a consideration.
I give it five years before the EIC (educational-industrial complex) makes the MIC (military industrial complex) look like child's play for mind-boggling waste and incompetence. Unfortunately, CCSS isn't really to
blame for this chain of events, but that certainly seems to be how it's playing out.
As Val hinted, many school districts, feeling so cash-strapped that they simply COULD not (er-- or "would not" anyway) invest in CCSS until they became MANDATORY... were left with few alternatives but to turn to a high-cost, turnkey approach when the time eventually came, as all days of reckoning seem to...
Enter Pearson (and a few other really big players) who were gambling on just that attribute (inertia) in the educational establishment.
