I agree with Jeff's view that if an instructor also writes the textbook, the students get a pretty narrow view of the field. There has to be an alternative vision.
I know one university where the entire department is collaborating on a textbook, and that is a possible solution -- diversity of viewpoints, consistent with department policy, and affordable. One point that has not come up is the scope of what we call ecology. I attend a lot of international workshops and at the level where ecologists are involved in policy issues it is clear that humans are port of the ecosystem. To what extent is this taught? I think that if we compare this discussion of textbooks with the parallel discussion of invasives we see that trying to discuss any ecological issue without taking into account human values as well as human intervention can be pretty futile. Bill Silvert ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jeff Jewett" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 10:11 PM Subject: textbook-free classes > I have > always had a problem, however, with instructors whose only "reading > material" is something that they wrote themselves (whether it was a > coursepack or something more formal). Every student learns differently, > and not all students will relate well to any particular instructor's > teaching style.
