TEXTBOOK 2.0: California's free, digital textbook program is a good start, but the open-source dream is still a long way off
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As California moves forward with the first open-source digital textbook program in the nation this fall, the best content seems a lot less like Wikipedia and a lot more like traditional publishing.
Bulky, hefty and downright expensive, conventional school textbooks may rank as the most outdated part of our nation's public education system. Many observers, including Chris Anderson, author of Free, have speculated that crowd sourcing could help bring down the cost of textbooks and improve their quality--but chipping away at the publishing industry's last profit center has proven more challenging in practice. In 2002, the California Open-Source Textbook Project aimed to produce a history textbook via Wikibooks that it estimated could save California $200 million per year. To date, the project has never cobbled together a complete book.
The open-source dream got a new boost in May, when Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger, responding to his state's budget crisis, asked content developers to submit their "open-source digital textbooks" to California Learning Resource Network (CLRN), a 10-year-old project established by the Board of Education that has long hosted supplemental electronic resources for the state.
Schwartzenegger's call sent three nonprofit organizations and forward-thinking textbook company Pearson scrambling to get their course materials up to snuff and to demonstrate how well they met the California content standards that align with standardized tests. CLRN had asked organizations to "freeze" their content for two years and make it available as a PDF—a move that director Brian Bridges admits may seem anachronistic in a Web 2.0 world, but in the future he hopes to review updates more frequently. Earlier this week, CLRN released reviews from the 16 science and mathematics books submitted, revealing their adherence to the content standards—and providing a first peek into the progress of the textbook 2.0 revolution.
While the real power of open-source textbooks, Bridges and others say, is being able to tap into the knowledge of the nation's 3 million schoolteachers, a look at the recent crop of books suggests that's not an accurate reflection of how educational content is being created. So far, the front-runners were typically written by just one or several authors, and the one major organization that has fully embraced a Wiki approach failed to impress CLRN reviewers.
Take the case of Connexions, which is based at Rice University in Houston, Texas and has amassed 14,000 "modules" from teachers around the country that can be shuffled in and out to assemble into hundreds of textbooks, known as collections. "We welcome everybody to contribute," says Connexions' community development specialist Jonathan Emmons. "We are not putting a restriction on who can use our content."
Yet the Algebra II book that the group submitted this year, which CLRN gave a score of 26 out of 27 possible points, was written by a single author, a North Carolina charter school teacher named Kenny Felder. Felder was pleased by the high grade his unconventional text received, but he feels no particular allegiance with the open-source movement. "I'm proud to be part of that, but it's not something I set out to be part of," he says. "If instead of being approached by Connexions, I'd been approached by Houghton Mifflin, I wouldn't have said no."
Meanwhile, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based CK-12 Foundation submitted seven books, all with impressive CLRN scores. Founded by Neeru Khosla, wife of Silicon Valley investor Vinod Khosla, CK-12 even boasts Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales on its board. But again, at this stage most of its books still represent a traditional mode of authorship—although they are making use of free images, such as Wikipedia photos and graphics.
On the other end of the spectrum is the nonprofit Curriki project, founded by Sun Microsystems and built on the XWiki platform, a next-generation Wiki application. Curriki's textbooks are the closest thing to Wikipedia in terms of the content creation interface, but they were among the lowest-scoring of the bunch. Their chemistry textbook received just 44 points out of 73, and their Earth science book got just three out of 46.
"I think the process we are engaging in is what's exciting to us, but we may have been a little bit disappointed with the score we received," says Curriki spokesperson Peter Levy.
Levy attributed the low score in part to "poor communication" on behalf of CLRN and a mix-up in the document that Curriki submitted describing the textbook's match with California standards. While Curriki was granted seven days to provide additional documentation following their review in July, they never did, CLRN officials said.
"Being open-source doesn't mean high quality," says CLRN's Bridges. "All sources have to be vetted."
Overall, Bridges says he is pleased with the results, and the program will keep growing with new waves of submissions in the coming months. The digital textbooks still face major hurdles before they can end up in classrooms, since no money has been allocated to provide laptop computers or e-readers to students.
Even so, Bridges argues that it's still a lot cheaper to print out these textbooks for $10 than to purchase commercial ones for $90. "Our argument is this is a change process," he says. "Not everything will happen at once."
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32 Comments
Add CommentI'm sorry that this article hasn't received enough attention to have a comment. All the information that you need is on the Internet, along with all the information that you don't need. It is very logical that textbooks should be available also. Publishing companies can see their death on the flat screen.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFor six years in the school system, I've been irate every time I had to shell out between three to six hundred dollars each semester or far worse.... quarter!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCheers to all the folks helping to make education more affordable. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
For six years in the college school system, I've been irate every time I had to shell out between three to six hundred dollars each semester or far worse.... each quarter!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCheers to all the folks helping to make education more affordable. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I'm not sure whether these e-books are only for colleges or the public school system as well. My problem as a teacher is that not all kids have access to a computer, or a computer that is capable of downloading large programs at home. Surprise! We get all flashy, carried away by modern technology, but forget that many of our citizens are struggling just to keep a roof over their heads.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLizHyde - With the money schools will save on textbooks, they can provide every student with a computer and there is a way you can arrange the schools where you can save even more money. When the school system converts to electronic textbooks it will open up a whole new world of learning to the students and teachers. The way schools are when you and I attended is outdated and disfunctional and the students learn very little. Electronic textbooks can change all that and also make the learning process safer for the student and teacher.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCreate Electronic textbooks AND Electronic Schools. That way you get rid of the expensive publishing houses and the inept teaching profession.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf students can download them onto a PDA such as Palm Tungsten E this will make them as portable as any book. This would be less weight for them to carry around, and they could read them while travelling on public transport. Now all they have to do ismake them last longer before needing a battery recharge.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisbooks do not need electricity to read, you can take them anywhere and use them. they are easier on the eyes and feel good in your hands. PDF's are cool, but if you need to study in a remote location you need to print them out.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPoliticians hear about some brand new technology that seems like it can magically help them fulfil their campaign promises, and a lot of money is wasted.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs someone who has worked researching educational practises and pedagogy, I have to say I am sceptical as to whether open-source textbooks will in the near future prove superior to the best existing textbooks: those that have a unified authorial voice, represent years of refined pedagogy, and incorporate not only subject matter, but new ways of engaging students. There is a science to creating a textbook.
I can see that many of our largest publishing houses have grown bloated and wasteful, and there is no need for texts to be as cumbersome or expensive as they presently are (with some exceptions). That said, many houses are already offering e-books and on-line resources, and they are improving all the time. We should not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
I fail to see how you can call our teaching profession "inept" while condoning open-source e-books. Who do you envision is going to provide the material for the e-books, genius? Subject matter experts, who lack any educational training at all?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI mean, really, why don't we just do away with education altogether?
I found the comment about paying a few hundreds of dollars per year for school books to be an eye opener. I come from a European country, one of the average in terms of economic power. Still, we have school books that are free, even for private schools. Our universities have no tuition fees for undergraduate courses (and about 50% of the postgraduate ones) and most textbooks are given out for free. Bear in mind that international textbooks have to be translated from english, which ups their cost. We don't have any of the top universities of the world. But at least, everybody has a chance of studying in them, irrespective of financial situation.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOf course, you don't want something like that in the US. After all, as that voter said in a local meeting the other day, "we don't want our country to become Russia or socialistic or anything like that". So you end up paying through you noses for a service which is considered one of the most basic obligations of the state to the citizens, full and accessible education.
Good summary. I don't know the authorial situation w/ these particular textbooks, but I would note that most textbooks at the K-12 level already don't actually have a single "author," whatever is stated on the title page. Rather they are created by teams of writers and editors, and the "author" is just the educational expert behind the overall pedagogy of the book. Obviously this isn't an open process, but it isn't quite so much coming from the mind of one individual as you portray in the article.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCall me a traditionalist, but I like having real paper in my hands and I don't like the idea of open-sourcing educational materials.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFor one, where is accountability going to end up? Wikipedia may be a great go-to site for quick info, but it most certainly is not to be considered a suitable teaching aid or reference for serious work. If we start turning textbooks into mini-wiki's, our education will slip out of the toilet and straight into the gutter.
Most modern e-book readers will get a week or more on a single charge. If a student in California can't get access to an electrical outlet that often, they have a bigger problem than trying to get past ancient paradigms.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe fact is, readers like the Kindle and Sony Reader use eInk technology that's very easy on the eyes. It's very difficult to distinguish the screen from a piece of paper. In fact, the first time I saw one on display, I thought it was a mockup until I pushed a button and the page changed. With long life and the ability to carry a couple of dozen textbooks in the size and weight factor of a single paperback, books should be on the way out, but Luddites abound in the older generations. It's time to move on.
I stopped buying textbooks for college entirely. Everything I need to know, I can learn from the internet. With just a search on wikipedia I can get the gist of what I need to know and with a bit more research I can find reputable sources to flesh out that general knowledge.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDispite not having purchased a textbook for the last two years of my college education, I did just as well as my peers and my grades didn't suffer from the shift. When I had textbooks, I found that I rarely read them. In fact, the only reason I ever had to crack open a textbook was if an assignment was required that was in the textbook.
Don't get me wrong, I love books and I love to read. I own quite a few books, many of them textbooks from particularly interesting classes. However, the vast majority of textbooks are superfluous with the ease at which information can be acquired on the internet.
I am a far greater fan on school textbooks on an electronic device that students already own and can be provided at a far less cost than standard textbooks.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI see Kindles or other ebook readers the better choice than handing out expensive Macbooks.
The school system has to shell out thosands of dollars to purchase those Macs along with the IT support to maintain them.
Parents are responsible for insurance to protect the schools' "investments". I don't want to be forced to shell out $200 or more to insure that my kid doesn't drop his computer or spill something on it each year.
Children are held responsible for the content and use of those computers. Most will probably use it to update their Facebook page anyway.
When I was in college, and even today I work with several books open at the same time, often with stickies on specific items because multiple items need to be referenced and cross checked before proceeding. Some of my reference material is only available electronicly and I will have to print portions to cross reference with other parts of the document. So who wants to have two or three or more kindles open at a time and they need to have the ability to flag sections to go back to, maybe they already do that I don't have one. One last thing many students, those who were going to keep their books forever because there pertinant to their carreer, write notes and highlight their books. can you do that in a Kindle and keep it forever.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOh, you know, you're right! It's an imperfect solution to the problem. So, let's stick with what we have now which is bankrupting the school systems until we can come up with a perfect solution that meets every single need anyone can come up with! Brilliant!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis article seems to confuse 'open source' with 'wiki' style mass contributions. While they are related, they do not necessarily imply the other and are fairly orthogonal concepts. I think the author has a fundamental misunderstanding of how these concepts play out in the real world, eg, see the majority of open source software projects.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs someone who has worked researching educational practises and pedagogy, I have to say I am sceptical as to whether open-source textbooks will in the near future prove superior to the best existing textbooks" (well, they'd be spell checked for a start)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis argument misses the point, open source textbooks do not have to be superior, they just have to be 'good enough' to be beneficial, just as firefox put pressure on IE to improve, so will OS textbooks put pressure on the entrenched oligarchy of publishers that harms students. In economic terms, OS textbooks will increase consumer (student) profit.
I'm adopting a college e-textbook for the fall semester that is published by a major publisher, and also is available in the traditional printed edition. The e-book price is about half the "new" regular book, and comparable with a used copy. However, when the text is a new edition, used books may not be available. This is where we are, but it's a short step to progressive updates instead of "new editions". The technology of an e-book "can" include better figures and illustrations with animations and video. At one extreme of "update" dynamics, ponder a book with a video of traffic in real time, and selected intervals recorded to show "dynamics of dynamics." The same approach can be used for organelles in a living cell. As traditional publishing transforms to include the real world with "samples" of data. Add in "extended kinds of data, such as from satelites, research laboratories, including the records from past. "Research" can become "monitoring reality." This new dynamic is an ancient one extended for better learning. The "final challenge" will be recognizing the new and RELEVANT information, integrating it into a shared reality, and using the understanding effectively. Isn't this what we've done for millenia, but now we have new tools to continue into new scales, contexts and shared collaborative discoveries? Intellectual dynamics will have more collaboration and sources of data. It will be interesting how social and economic systems adapt.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think scoring a wiki at some fixed point, probably early in its development, is never going to provide a reasonable evaluation of what it could be, so the California process is flawed.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOn the other hand, creating a wiki to meet curriculum, rather than just to compile information, is not a trivial problem. It has to be at student level; it has to be open, to allow student contribution (essential to learning); it has to be purposeful, goal-oriented, rather than merely interesting or (worse, especially below university level) comprehensive.
This is why one skilful person who knows what he or she is trying to create is better than a million who don't. And why one author with a knowledgeable editor is better still. And why one author, one editor, and a designer who knows how best to present information to students is best of all.
And why texts cost money to make.
I suspect that a traditional wiki, could, eventually, become a good resource for learning. I seriously doubt that it can happen quickly, though. It would probably require years of thrashing around before it became of quality acceptable for consistent use. The options at the moment appear to be to pay for a text or ebook from a publisher (expensive but fast process, high-quality product) or to wait for a wiki (cheap but slow process, product of uncertain quality).
We have to be worried that wikis won't become like our legislatures; instead of repositories of collective wisdom they often are repositories of collective stupidity.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is my opinion we should not become too dependant on electronic solutions. In some cases computers and the internet enhance education. While in other cases, it diminishes education.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI recently returned to school to finish a degree I started years ago. I am 54 years old and raised computer free. However, I am not handicapped by technology. I have been using computers for longer than most college students have been alive. The computers and the internet have their uses. But, from what I can see, most students entering college have very little fundamental learning skills. I believe this is a result of technology. It seems as though we no longer teach our students how to think. The computer and internet are there to think for them.
I am not old fashioned. I just know from experience that a computer can't match a printed book for portability, reliability, and readability.
I could not agree more with Walburg's cautions. "e-Book burning" could be almost as effective as those of the Dark Ages with appropirate malware. At the least I consider multiple forms of information are important, from email to archived copies (both electronic and printed paper, and archived scrolls). Amazon's Kindle and computer screens are growing "media" for reading, but paper and ink will not be as tactile or equivalent. The technologies from a pencil to a server compliment. It will be a long time, IMO, before books have the fate of paprus scrolls sealed in climate controlled vaults.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIsn't it great, of all the material to offer you have to push the social activist utopian plan of global warming or climate change.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere's physics that is far more applicable to the students for real honest to goodness work applications. There is financial mathematics to show how a real company operates or how your household budget should work. But no, shove climatology and climate change into these young people. Indoctrinate them with psuedo-science, and more garbage from some over paid modelling professor who has never gone out into a northern hemisphere location. Only bunk science from southern hemisphere professor who hasn't travelled farther than his personal computer station within some leftist university.
Years ago, I taught for the Los Angeles Unified School District in Watts and I had to photocopy parts of my old college texts as there were no textbooks available. I applaud the free source idea, but why model it on Wikipedia? A single expert typically make a point more clearly than do groups of people. It is kind of like the old joke describing a camel as being a horse designed by a committee. Too many voices can water down the point. A teacher can always suggest other views (ie: other theoretical premises), and give the student a chance to think about the topic.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThank you for the mention of Curriki in your blog. We are pleased to have the opportunity to participate in the groundbreaking California digital textbook initiative with our submission of Chemistry and Earth Science textbooks. These comprehensive collections were assembled from member and partner submissions and were correlated based on the metatags assigned by the contributors. We understand that this method did not accurately conform to the CA standards but that does not imply that the content is not relevant and valuable. Actually most of the content does cover the specific subject matter; and the Chemistry course covers many topics not required by CA. We hope that future digital textbook initiatives allow flexibility in file/document formats that include multimedia, videos and links to external resources. These types of assets were included in our digital textbooks but were not reviewed for Californias alignment to standards.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe are excited to note that these resources, in part or as a whole, have been viewed and/or downloaded more than 1500 times since the initial announcement of the CLRN free digital textbook release on August 10th. This growing usage of the specific textbook resources supports our belief that the resources have provided significant added value to the specific subject matter for teachers.
Curriki and the open educational resources (OER) movement support the development and free distribution of open educational materials that can be customized to meet the needs of the individual learner. This type of content development and instructional design promotes a collaborative effort that engages teachers in the learning process and incorporates their expertise, thus meeting the needs of multiple types of learners. Curriki seeks to expand core-learning resources to all media and to have the users grow and perfect the materials as part of the instructional design process. For this reason, we have reached out to teachers in California to participate in the review and the further development of the Earth Science and Chemistry courses, as well as other core subject areas. We view education as a dynamic process that requires continual scrutiny and improvement from all stakeholders; including teachers, parents and students to assure that we are providing the best possible learning experience for all.
If you wish to learn more about the importance of teacher involvement in the curriculum development process and its impact on teaching and learning in the classroom, I highly recommend a recent study by CTL. You can read the full study at: <http://www.twelvehorses.com/ct/ML50OM/8DW1G5W0/*http_mm_url_mm_www.ctl.sri.com/publications/displayPublication.jsp?ID=706
This scenario smells of big publishing's money and influence is trying to shape the outcome of California's nobel textbook efforts. This is a no brainer issue....duh! Educators, parents, school officials and students need to wake up and join the 21st century. The longer the resistance is allowed to fester, real progress is in danger. If my 80 year old grandmother can learn how to use the laptop we bought her, then I refuse to accept "I can't" from anyone. A text book is nothing but information. It really doesn't matter about the form factor, information is information.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGreat info I would also suggest using GreenTextbooks.org
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSave Money, Save The Planet
GreenTextbooks.org specializes in the recycling of textbooks, DVDs, CDs. Buying used textbooks not only saves you money, but cuts down on greenhouse gases caused by the manufacturing of new textbooks.
With GreenTextbooks.org you're not only saving trees, you are saving some green. http://www.GreenTextbooks.org
Great info I would also suggest using GreenTextbooks.org
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSave Money, Save The Planet
GreenTextbooks.org specializes in the recycling of textbooks, DVDs, CDs. Buying used textbooks not only saves you money, but cuts down on greenhouse gases caused by the manufacturing of new textbooks.
With GreenTextbooks.org you're not only saving trees, you are saving some green. GreenTextbooks.org
Flat World Knowledge has the answer - by far the most disruptive textbook publishing company in existence. More than 1200 colleges and universities are using their print and digital textbooks, in a mere 16 months since they came to market. Check them out!
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