Dear Jeremy,
You've struck a chord! Fantastic response in support of your idea. I think this is complementary to Bryant's ideas, don't you?
As you say, we've long considered this, and even worked on it, but there are numerous people/groups doing things which we could "advocate," explain, rate, write exercises and manuals for, etc. Is that what you mean with the links to projects?
Fantastic ideas everyone's contributing. I'm very excited about the good energy. I think Yishay mentioned an important point, by the way -- the need for a platform. That's why I'd like to propose taking Bill F. up on his offer to let us install his in-progress tool so we can begin using it to work together. I think it would be a good first step, don't you all?
What do you say, Bill?
By the way, thanks for asking about my own text, last updated ten years ago; it's a dinosaur now, but one of the first. I'll repost it, such as it is, as an historical artifact. ;-)
----- Message from yishaym@xxxxxxxxx ---------
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:28:17 +0000
From: Yishay Mor <yishaym@xxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: schoolforge-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [school-discuss] project idea: open source text books
To: schoolforge-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi Jeremy,Very interesting idea.Are you aware of -Given Apple's recent announcement of iBook author (http://www.apple.com/ibooks-author/) and the controversy around it, I think its worth looking into the idea of open-source eBooks, and an open platform for collaboratively authoring eBooks.A low-cost tablet and an open library of eBooks is much more cost effective than a repository of printable textbooks.bestYishay
____________________
Dr. Yishay Mor
Senior Lecturer, Educational Technology
http://iet.open.ac.uk/people/yishay.mor
+44 1908 6 59373
On 27 January 2012 14:19, Jeremy C. Reed <reed@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I propose the group advocates and works toward open source text books.
These would be open content projects that result in free digital and
(optionally) very low-cost print textbooks and course work. This would
be a public endeavor using open collaborative methods. The text and its
related artwork and formatting and tools to create and re-generate will
be freely and publically accessible and redistributable.
Some side goals could be to save money for schools and better allocate
tax payers money, such as increasing school teacher's salaries, and
maybe better learning experience due to further media capabilities.
(Another minor goal is so kids, like mine, don't have to carry around
20+ pounds of textbooks :)
Maybe some ideas at:
http://www.opencontent.org/
http://archives.seul.org/schoolforge/discuss/May-2002/msg00194.html
(Hey David where is your document now?)
http://www.jasonheppler.org/open-source-scholarship-and-why-history-should-be-open-source.html
http://teachinghistory.org/teaching-materials/ask-a-master-teacher/22276
http://levine.sscnet.ucla.edu/general/intellectual/open.htm
I know we talked a little about it before around May 2002, but sadly
nothing came out of it from me. But it is time to do this again because
I recently listed to an interview about Steve Jobs and their textbook
plans. Here are some related links:
http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/01/apples-textbook-partner-mcgraw-hill-reveals-ibooks-2-plans.php
350,000 downloads in 3 days
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2140927/apple-s-textbook-initiative-350-downloads-days
http://www.apple.com/education/ibooks-textbooks/
They may be "reinventing the textbook" but I don't think they are open
source and may be, in fact, tied down to a proprietary platform.
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