Free textbooks?
This is an interesting article in the Chronicle of Higher Education: An Online Company Tries an Unexpected Publishing Model: Free Textbooks
While this particular article is focused on higher education, I'd be interested to hear the ORVSD community's thoughts on the idea and whether it's a relevant issue in the K-12 arena as well. Do you think textbook publishers can succeed with a business model more akin to the open source world than traditional publishing?
Free Textbooks?
Higher ed is completely different than K-12. In Oregon, K-12 is limited, to a great extent, by the books that are on the state-approved list. However, schools can ask for waivers.
The biggest issue, however, is access. Few schools have the 1-to-1 computer-to-student ratio necessary to utilize this type of resource. Home access is also an issue; Medford just told me that 60% of their students do not have computers at home.
Also, textbooks themselves are an issue. As we are mandated to provide materials to differentiate for different reading levels, the online textbooks are not necessarily any better than print materials, except that they are more easily used in text-to-speech, which is still not very high quality.
User updating is an interesting experiment for the real world, but not very practical for the classroom. As one who has used online materials in my classes for years, I have many stories to tell about how things literally changed overnight. While this was challenging in my high school classes, I think it might be overwhelming at the lower levels.
Anyone else have any thoughts and experiences with this?
And, I'm curious to know if anyone has bought a Kindle yet?
Virginia Petitt
Online School Specialist
Southern Oregon ESD