The Future of Textbooks
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt stands as one of the first major textbook publishers to publish a textbook as an “app.” While many publishers offer e-book versions of their texts, those actually differ very little from their printed counterparts. HMH Fuse is a comprehensive Algebra 1 resource that may change the way we teach math.
According to the presenter and accompanying website, in contrast to most e-books (or flat files) “students and educators using HMH Fuse: will benefit from:
- Instructional videos that teach or re-teach all key concepts
- Math Motion is a step-by-step interactive demonstration that displays the process to solve complex equations
- Homework Help provides at-home support for intricate problems by providing hints for each step in the solution
- Vocabulary support throughout with links to a complete glossary that includes audio definitions
- Tips, hints, and links that enable students to acquire the help they need to understand the lessons every step of the way
- Quizzes that assess student’s skills before they begin a concept and at strategic points throughout the chapters. Instant, automatic grading of quizzes lets students know exactly how they have performed
- Immediate assessment results sent to teachers so they can better differentiate instruction”
This “app” is currently being piloted, but results have yet to be released to the public. I think the instructional videos that can be paused, rewound, and played at a student’s own pace could certainly benefit those that don’t quite “get it” the first time around.
I am very interested to see how HMH Fuse performed against the control group.