Betty Ray talks about the traditional textbook:
Medium does matter. And the textbook is generally a medium that inspires neither motivation nor imagination. If textbooks were inspiring and everyone wanted to read them, they’d be at the top of the New York Times’ bestseller list. But they’re not.
As a teacher, I’d say that the best things textbooks do are a) make my life easier by supplying me with reading passages, questions, and projects for the kids to do, b) organize the class material in such a way that we can stay on a steady course, and c) make it easy for colleagues and I teaching the same classes to “keep on the same page,” so to speak. And in all three cases, the textbook serves the teacher quite well.
Unfortunately, the textbook does not serve the students quite as well.
Read further in her Blog Post in Edutopia