Socrates famously rejected the supposed importance of the written word(1) in the Phaedrus. I wonder what he would have had to say about blogs and twitter? David Weinberger has a post on a book which I've just put on my Wish List, The Coming of the Book. Looks fascinating from the quotes he's published:

Joho the Blog » [2b2k] Books: The early years: "I’m reading The Coming of the Book, by Lucien Febvre and Henri-Jean Martin (1958), who explain arrival of printed books with an impressive attention to fact-based detail. Amazing scholarship."

Maybe Socrates was right, after all. In any case, one of the main reasons I'm not using a textbook this year is because of the "institutionalization" of science-as-a-method that results from a rigidly composed amalgamation of information (2). Instead, I want my students to realize that science is not institutionalized or something done by professionals with post-docs. Instead, it's sometimes messy and often times can be done in our garages or backyards or bedrooms. I only have a few months of proper class-time with these 13 and 14 year olds(3). I don't want to spend precious moments of 43 minute class times having them memorize bold words in the name of standards. As Socrates observed in the Phaedrus: "And it is no true wisdom that you offer your disciples, but only its semblance, for by telling them of many things without teaching them you will make them seem to know much, while for the most part they know nothing, and as men filled, not with wisdom, but with the conceit of wisdom, they will be a burden to their fellows.” Regardless, I still love my books (even the digital ones). -- 1 via Plato, of course 2 especially since I teach the wide ranging topic of physical science... basic chemistry and physics wrapped in one course like yin-yang. 3 Yet another reason I love the availability factor of email, Facebook, Twitter, blogs etc as I've actually done more quality "teaching" via text messages and FB wall posts compared to class lectures!