It was at this time that I introduced the idea of an open source text book. They seemed to understand the concept, but I has also introduced a number of new initiatives into the course, all focused on increased collaboration. We will see over the next few weeks how well they understood and how they get involved with the project and in particular, contribute to it.
Chris :-)
The plan for my text book is that my concept of an open source text is significantly larger than this project that I would like to implement. My definition should not be labelled open source, as initially it will not be modelled on the Open Source licensing for GNU license, but instead have the wiki open to users within the course (at present a class of face to face students and a class of online students).
Chris :-)
Comment by Ricardo Machado I like the idea of using the wiki as a textbook. Right now my students are using it to create a review of information that has already been covered but after reading this I think their third semester wiki will be their own textbook. My students love their wikis now. They have definitely surpassed my expectations. I can’t wait to see what they will come up with when they are making their own textbooks.
“I’ll Take Poor Assumptions for $800, Alex”
So I’m looking at pretty bleak odds right now in terms of getting home from beautiful Monterey (where I got the experience of presenting on the TED stage even though it wan’t the TED conference) because there is this big blob of icy snow blue over New Jersey on the weather maps today. But this article about a Boston College professor who is using wikis to have students create the text for his course lifted my spirits a bit. Lots of shifts:
“My wiki is my textbook now,” he said. “This platform is infinitely better and gets better information from a variety of sources. It takes a year and half for a textbook to get published, and by the time that happens it is outdated. [The use of] textbooks will begin to fade … and these more collaborative-based, environment will probably rise to the surface.”
But here is the chuckle. In the comments on the story, we quickly get the typical skeptic:
What exactly are the students (or their parents) paying for, and what exactly do the students know at the end of the course that they didn’t know before? Or does everybody just get a nice fuzzy feeling because they create their own exams and determine their own grades? And how many credits do they get for this waste of time and money?
And, in an example of what fun all of this is, a student from the class gives a great response starting with “I’ll take poor assumptions for $800, Alex”. Nice.
Maybe my assumptions about the weather are wrong too…
I just found an article by Ben Crowell titled: " Do Open-Source Books Work?" from http://www.lightandmatter.com/article/article.html
He raises a number of interesting points about open source text books. He focuses on the intention and the licensing of the books. Starting with Benjamin Franklin and his use of the lending library to "free" information and release it to the masses. With us in the information revolution, are we taking this concept seriously? He suggests we seem to be going in the opposite direction when it comes to texts for school and university study.
He discussed the Biophysics Textbook On-Line (BTOL) which is "collaborative but closed-source". One of the authors commented on the success of BTOL: "The BTOL is tied to a Society that already has an established community, regular meetings, newsletters, etc. We tap into all of this structure. For example, when a new article is posted we announce it in the Biophysical Society Newsletter. I would think that other fields might benefit from endorsement by an established society that already serves the field."
I am building a picture of Open Source Text Books that is different to my original intention, and now I think it is time to clarify this intention.Interestingly, Google Book Search comes up regularly in online searches – the next step was to see if this was a useful source of information, or maybe even an example of Open Source Text Books in action. The criteria for promoting the site states quite clearly that the role of Google Book Search is as the name suggests, a catalog of books. “We aim to help our users discover books, not read them online. In addition, copy, save and print functions are disabled. See the Programme Basics page for more information on how books are viewed.” Google Book Search Help Centre
However, in the practice, the Google Book Search proved useful in providing information directly from books by reading the book online. It allowed me to read books that I would not normally have taken in for this research as the books were held overseas or were fare enough out of reach to make a small research task like this not worth the effort to produce.
The next avenue was Wikibooks, as described by Daniel Terdiman below in 2005:
“Open-source textbooks on any topic, in any language, available to anyone, anywhere, for free - this is the goal of Wikibooks, a project of the Wikimedia Project, the folks who brought you Wikipedia. Currently consisting of over 11.000 book modules from kindergarten to university-level, Wikibooks opens the door to publishing textbooks in the same way Wikipedia allowed anyone to define and redefine a word – allowing real worldwide, open-ended discourse to enter into the academic arena. This could equal negative implications for the publishing industry if instructors begin selecting Wikibooks as texts for classes, a viable option considering the rising costs of published academic texts. But if the project continues to grow it could also positively impact global education, as free textbooks could be utilized in developing nations that are unable to provide hard copy books for students.” By Daniel Terdiman Staff Writer, CNET News.com Published: September 28, 2005, 4:00 AM PDT
I (and it seems the creators) also found it easier to describe wiki books by describing what it is not: “Wikibooks is not:
a dictionary, a free wiki host or webspace provider, an encyclopedia, a news service, a place to publish original works, a mirror or a repository for source texts, a soapbox, paper, for developing new Wikimedia projects, censored for the protection of minors and not for video game strategy guides” http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks:What_is_Wikibooks
In a blog from another secondary teacher in a public school (other information is kept confidential) under the heading of: “Open Source Textbooks” He writes :
“We don’t have a calculus text, so I’m left to my own devices. Fortunately, there’s a number of open-source textbooks!
* A Slashdot thread: Five Free Calculus Books
Tell me that story again, Grandpa, about the times before the internets… how was it that people survived?” http://understanding.mindtangle.net/?p=105
It seems that many people are forced into the realm of Open Source Text books, for the same reason as this teacher – no access to a purchasable text – or maybe moreso, an inability to purchase a class set of texts.
This brings me to the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP). This project is designed to combat the large amount of money spent on text books by the State of California. In their words: “It has been created to address the high cost, content range, and consistent shortages of K-12 textbooks in California.” http://www.opensourcetext.org/ (2002). Their plan is to “...not replace printed textbooks; it simply makes them less expensive to produce; and, in doing so creates many additional benefits...” http://www.opensourcetext.org/ (2002)
Interestingly, as “All Roads Lead to Rome”, I was lead by COSTP back to WikiBooks, and that is where COSTP started (in 2006) and seemingly finished on this project...No links to Open Source Text from California Department of Education site ...
