Do we need textbooks?

Yesterday afternoon I met with our Math Leadership Team at the elementary school to discuss the purchase of a new textbook series. There was some very good discussion on the three 'finalists' they had chosen and the pros and cons of each. The discussion became very interesting when we once again started talking about whether we need textbooks at all. We have been talking about the need for textbooks for a few months now after it was brought up at one of these meetings. Since then, I have been slowly gathering online resources to help show them what teaching mathematics might look like if we didn't purchase a book. I believe the math team at the elementary level is ready to make the jump to  having no textbook. I showed them websites like the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives. A great site packed full of java based manipulatives. I also showed them resources containing more than just manipulatives like Computing Technology for Math Excellence. I only had about 30 minutes so I tried to show them the best, free resources out there right now. I hope they were impressed and as excited as I am at the possibilities.

Now to get each of those elementary students a laptop...

Here is the complete list of what I showed them.

• http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html
• http://arcytech.org/java/
• http://learnalberta.ca/content/memg/index.html
• http://illuminations.nctm.org/
• http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/
• http://harcourtschool.com/activity/elab2004/index_2004.html
• http://www.visualfractions.com/
• http://mathforum.org/mathtools/
• http://www.ct4me.net/index.htm