教科書可以有多美 The most beautiful Textbook in the World
- JCT
- Jul 15, 2018
- 3 min read
在展場周圍，像是戴著紅色泳帽的藍色呼嚕呼嚕怪獸潛伏在周圍。它像是一個得以自由出入於水坑的變形生物，埋伏在我們的世界裡，默默控管著時間的推移與人們的生活
教育似乎就是如此，在淺移默化中形塑出如今的社會。
世界最美的教科書是哪裡的書呢？
回頭想想，或許太習慣，抑或太遲鈍，在受教育當下的我們的確不太注意到書的美醜。教育除了將知識傳遞到年輕的族群外，「如何做」以及「為什麼做」更是應該要被廣泛討論的事情之二。這跟我們所知道的設計思考大同小異：先決定內容的詮釋，再決定如何呈現。以這次展覽內容舉例，日本的教育極度倡導「終身學習」──這個概念應用之年齡範圍較為廣泛，若應用在書系上，其設計應避免掉特別擄獲某一族群的元素，而採用通用之設計，例如考量明確、簡單之風格、字體大小、內容規劃等等。有了以上的思考，交予適合的執行團隊，到了觀眾手上，才更能符合使用者需求，並有機會被歸類為「美」的教科書了。
以「學制與其內容」這個大方向來看，小學至高中的內容皆由少變多，尤其高中內容有突然爆量的狀況，而這當然也能在這次展出的日本書中看見。但話說回來，為什麼大方向不變，日本跟台灣的狀況卻有所不同呢？為什麼他們的教科書比較美？其中關鍵是資訊設計的著重與否。
資訊量爆炸、版面大小有限這狀況，對圖文編排確實為極大的挑戰之一。以下列舉三點觀察到之基本教科書編排原則：首先，如何決定單行字數多寡？一行太多字，學生閱讀疲乏，太少反而發散注意力；再來是如何調和來源不同之圖片，或許從色彩去調整，則考慮以相近色系為並排元素，也或許從統一尺寸大小下手，主要目的為避免圖片之間讓閱讀分心；最後，如何融合圖文內容並作合宜的配置，如同以下擷取其中一本高中歷史課本內頁，適當的照片組合方式將能把對立、合作等等的課文烙印在學生腦海中。
其實新一代的台灣人非常幸運，有一群美感教科書的團隊，注意到了一些問題，知道教科書美化的必要性，正在為之後入學的種子準備肥美的土壤。或許，「教科書如果可以好看一點，那該有多好！」的想法，也會如種子般散佈在台灣的土地上，提醒大眾設計的必要性吧。
On the windows surrounding the exhibition area, a blueish monster-like creature is hiding beneath. It makes its way through all kinds of ponds freely, and controls time and the lives of human beings. It seems like education is all about this that cultivates and forms today’s society. Where do the most beautiful textbooks come from? Besides the goal of bringing knowledge to the youngsters, educators should also consider the How and Why before putting into production. For example, a series of books were categorized as lifelong learning by Japan government, which contains crafts, housing, marriage, and so on. It is designed with no tendency towards any audience; overall, the design is elegant, clean, and can be added for more categories without losing its style.
In terms of the content, it goes without saying that it grows over time, especially in high school, when the content tripled all of a sudden, which can also be observed in the textbooks from Japan. But what makes the difference? Why is Japan considered outstanding? The vital reason should be the information design. Under such circumstance of huge volume of information, from deciding the length of the texts to combine photos extracted from different sources, the layout becomes way more difficult.
I couldn’t envy more of the new generation in Taiwan. A group of people are now dedicating themselves to the improvements of textbooks, including not just the content but design. It is my sincerest hope that questions such as “wouldn’t it be great if our textbooks are beautiful?’’ can be asked from every one of us.
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