Tom McGlew, project manager for eSyst, just got off the phone with a major textbook publisher.  The publisher had received a phone call from a major US company that employees more than two hundred thousand people.  The conversation went something like this:

We can no longer have you teach from the components level.  We need to have our technicians taught from a systems view.  If you cannot teach at the systems level, then we are going elsewhere.

Tom and the other eSyst developers (all faculty) have been talking to publishers for years about changing.  But none of them would because none of their customers, i.e., faculty wanted to. Which, you can’t blame the publishers for not wanting to change.  Except many faculty were telling us that they could not teach at the systems level because there were no text books and the publishers wouldn’t change.  But now, industry is telling the text books to change.  One of the major technical colleges has told the publishers to change.  Change is happening.  The publishers cannot say their clients don’t want systems view.  Faculty are going to have to go to the systems view because that is what industry wants.  A faculty member, in the near future, will find it hard to find a components book for the lower division classes. 

Funny how far ahead eSyst was when it was just an idea.  Now everyone is recognizing that for technicians, component level is not appropriate – but the systems level is. 

Mark Viquesney