2004-04-08 6:00 PM Yeka mentioned that I have issued an article "Alienation and sublimation of IT textbook" in the recent "Chinese Reading News". The article is very bad, the feeling of writing is very lagging, I have also wanted to touch, because the editorial set of delivery has arrived, I have to hard my head. Here, I only mention a problem with the relationship between the article:
I haven't seen the effect of the article in the newspaper, but from the electronic version of the Guangming Daily website, the editor of the "Chinese Reading News" is very carefully deleted from a sensitive word in the embarrassment. I am very understanding that the editor's work, but in this era of science today, the CCTV in the past few days, the CCTV, please enter the screen ... Our scientific consciousness is still to be improved! The following is my original:
Alienation and sublimation of IT textbooks
Wang Wei Gang, March 2004
When you turn your book, you accidentally discovered that the earliest school and the earliest textbook in the world are all created around the two river basins 3000 BC. This year is 2004, 2004, a year ago, when the US third-player drifted into the southern Iraqi, US vents did not know that under the land of the tank and infantry chariot, it is likely to be buried. The Sumeier campus before five thousand years ago, buried in Lang Lang reading five thousand years ago?
I envy the Sumeren, envy their ancient civilization and the same ancient teaching practice. In contrast, the Chinese people's situation is somewhat not embarrassed: Although I learned from the textbook from the teachings, China has a five thousand years of ancient civilization, but until the growing adult, I found any serious history. The literature could not tell us exactly that when the Sumealer in five thousand years wrote a wedge text in a pair of mud board, whether China's ancients have invented the words in strict sense, whether they also opened The school wrote its own textbook. In addition to the lack of scientific basis for "five thousand years", there is still a lot of places in the domestic textbooks in the domestic textbooks in accordance with the research of Fang Zhouzi in the Internet. There is no doubt that this extremely unscrupulous attitude will compile today, publish, issue and use a considerable hazard. In the IT textbook market I care, similar hidden dangers is not so obvious, it will also make people feel that there is a manifestation in the back.
For example, there are many people tend to mix IT textbooks and ordinary IT books to talk: Some publishers under the flag of "a series of textbooks", "N-day learning a certain" or such popularity reading refund, re-publish; Many colleges have known the textbooks of the students. In fact, they are only just the relics of the technical book list; many students believe that the content of the textbooks in the traditional sense is aging, form, and in the classroom, listening to the teacher, still It is better to buy some popular books to self-study. Take modern education theory to emphasize the standards of specialization and differentiation to measure, these practices are not rigorous and scientific, but also in the library market and the common prosperity of the education industry - the truth is very simple: for publishers, competition Today, it is increasingly relying on the market and the specific product. The boundaries of artificially eliminate IT textbooks and ordinary IT books are not seen in the huge market opportunities; for teachers, it is not special in class. For the books prepared by teaching, this will add a bit of oysters and obstacles to the process of teaching and learning; as for those tired students, I think if the professional textbook can really play the way, Q & A, the role of the questions, they also Will not return to follow, take ordinary technical books to get started with books.
In fact, professional IT textbooks distinguish between ordinary IT books is to be more targeted for the former more targeted markets and readers. Now, there are too many IT teaching materials advertised themselves for classroom teaching, or meet the needs of IT practitioners. This kind of saying may be just a market promotion method for IT textbook publishing and issuers, but the authenticity and effectiveness behind it are quite doubtful. It is undeniable that many excellent IT books have achieved a good reputation in the two most important readers in the two categories of students and engineers, but this is like the commercial PC and home PC when the PC market has just happened in the early 1980s. There is no difference between the same difference, it is only the temporary phenomenon that the market is not yet mature, the needs of characteristics is not obvious. Simply put, if the teachers of the colleges just want to make one or two hundred students in the traditional big class, the teacher is in the public, the use of the book is not a particularly important thing to use as a textbook and reference information. Conversely, if our IT educator wants to turn the classroom into a stage of teachers and students exchange interactive, turn teaching into a accelerator that promotes knowledge transfer, then specializes in teachers and students must be dominated from vast The book is standing out in the sea, and the big shows. However, how do we highlight the targeted IT textbooks in practice? This problem is actually equivalent. If in the near future, there may be a mature, stable, high-quality "teaching area" in the IT book market. So, what characteristics do you need to have specialized textbooks in the region?
Generally speaking, IT textbooks need to have sufficient systemicity than other technical books, but in this case, the user can reach the target of knowledge transfer in a complete knowledge framework. Moreover, different types of textbooks - such as textbooks and teaching reference materials - the systematic requirements are not the same. For example, a technical monograph like "design model", its original intention is to publish the view, clarify the concept, it is impossible to comprehensively introduce the background knowledge that students must understand (such as object-oriented design and UML language), or systematically Summarize the main academic perspectives and research results in the relevant fields (such as the front and back view of design patterns), similar books as the object-oriented course is not unable, but as the textbooks used in the classroom are slightly reluctant.
From the perspective of submission, IT textbooks should pay more attention to teaching experience methods rather than instilling specific knowledge skills. According to the "Beijing Youth Daily", Zhang Hongjiang, Dean of Microsoft Asian Academy of Engineering, was excited to be recruited, because of the graduates who had a practical research and development capabilities: "Some software professional graduates are too powerful, separated from reality." From the perspective of textbooks, graduates lack practical ability, and more or less to neglect the case teaching, scenario, project practice, free discussion, and other scientific methods training. Of course, focus on methods and ideas teaching will increase the design and writing difficulty of IT textbooks. In this regard, some publishers mistakenly believe that IT technology has a new moon difference, and traditional textbooks cannot keep up with the speed of technology update, with their carefully designed, planned and published professional textbooks, it is not as good as the label for ordinary technical books. Take off - this may be because they have not realized that the technical replacement does not necessarily mean that the basic law of IT, the basic method is aging, and the specialized IT textbook will focus on the law, and the method is in some kind. The degree is maintained stable, not or less affected by technical updates.
On the other hand, IT textbooks are responsible and obligated to guide students to complete the entire learning process from sorrowful to familiarity. Is there a compass or a guide to the efficacy, which is an important feature of IT textbooks from ordinary IT books. For example, the technical book like the "C standard library" is similar to the programmer's manual is not suitable for playing the role of teaching guidelines in the class. The reason is that such books are convenient for the complete and writing of such books. It is most likely to talk about the knowledge of the user's learning curve, and according to the generalization of the teaching, it is easy to arrange the sequence of knowledge teaching, and determine the scope of content coverage. Similarly, a book based on the learner's thinking habits, step by step (such as the famous "Java Programming Thoughts") obviously more than one standard literature (such as Sun Company released " Java Language Norms ") can meet the needs of IT teaching. As an academic point of view, teachers are impossible to reveal the scientific truth to students, objective and calm are also a basic attitude of all excellent IT textbooks. In the IT circle, all kinds of technologies have also been developed rapidly, and there is also a characteristic of dragon snakes, and the characteristics of goodness - I mean that there is not much to use the essence in the new technologies and new theories that are endless. There are quite a few of the new technologies and new theories, after the birth, just like the wind of the smoke, the clouds are fluttering. In this context, if the editor of IT textbooks is easily confused than students, it is easy to be confused by beautiful advertising words and fashionable technological terms, and not using objective, calm vision to identify and protect the theory and technology in the relevant field, then The authority and stability of IT textbooks, as well as the specificity of IT textbook markets.
The above-oriented approach, the method for teaching, the guidance of the learning process, and the technical screening and 取舍, etc., the procedures for specializing IT materials should focus on. In addition, IT textbooks have sufficient reasons from ordinary IT books only on the external form of books. It is said that the book of "Obis Sensualium Pictus" in J. A. Comenius is officially born in the form of textbooks in the modern sense. Regardless of this statement, Corenius uses an illustration, commentary, and the idea of improving the readability of textbooks is still very important for today's textbook compilation. For example, in most people's experience, a major feature of IT textbooks is the course after each chapter, but you can find out after a few lessons, but you can find that in more and more modern textbooks, after class The exercise is undergoing major changes: open-oriented, no standard answer has become an essential element of excellent textbooks, the traditional, the exercises and their standard answers only for the revision of the course cannot accommodate the needs of interactive education models It is gradually tired. Similar forms of forms also include: many textbooks are in a blank form, a blank flow chart, a blank insert, and other ways to reserve space in class. The textbook is marked with different icons to mark the difficulty of learning every knowledge point. Different fonts or color distinguish between different method systems; in each learning phase, the textbooks can always point out the knowledge and method points of the reader should master; in the foreword, for different types, different levels of readers, give suggestions Learning plan; in the recommendation of the reference, modern textbooks pay more attention to online resources and electronic reading ... There is also a key to being ignored, a good textbook, especially a good textbook It can be equipped with a full set of auxiliary teaching materials when published, which may include: a teacher manual for guiding and regulating teaching practices, a set of excellent exercises libraries and case sets, a set of electronic slides, one provides Web site for data download and technical support, and so on. All in all, lively language, open form, all-standing information is a key factor in specializing IT textbooks from IT books, which is also an important sign of IT education to get rid of traditional models and move towards maturity. Finally, you can simply talk about the topics related to the photocopy textbook. As we all know, the photocopy textbook has occupied considerable share in the domestic IT textbook market, and many schools that carry out bilingual teaching also use a lot of photocopying materials in the classroom. This phenomenon has nothing bad, but it does expose the innate shortcomings of localized professional textbooks. In fact, I have listened to some courses using the photocopy page. At that time, my feelings were that this course in improving students' professional English level is much greater than their ability to teach knowledge and methods - if they are bold, Change the lecturer of the course to the new Oriental Yu Minhong or a crazy English Li Yang, and the teaching effect will be improved. I don't oppose the advanced results of foreign countries, but the original textbooks directly introduced are far from teaching methods and thinking habits. It is far away from the domestic IT education environment. If there is no excellent lecturer dredge, guidance, students tend to listen I have a mist. More than one thing is a matter of doing, who makes our local textbooks still stay in the level of Tan Haoqiang version "Basic language"? For publishing industries, the lack of local excellent textbooks is not necessarily a bad thing: this means potential market opportunities, while business opportunities in the market can bring huge development for specific products. If you can consciously realize the existence of this issue, and actively participate in localized professional textbooks - of course, in the development of English textbooks prepared in China's education environment - publishers, teachers and The common interests of students can be more effective.
