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California State Senator Proposes Funding Open-Source Textbooks

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Re: California State Senator Proposes Funding Open-Source Textbooks

#11

Post by mikepmalai »

breckinloggins wrote: post #6

I think the whole CONCEPT of a "textbook" needs to change: 1. It should be open-source or available on your nearest "App Store" for a REASONABLE price 2. It should be interactive. If I have a history textbook describing a battle, I want to be able to watch the battle unfold (even if it's just a diagram). If I am reading a chemistry textbook, let me play with the molecule. When I need to learn about the D3 group in Ab…

I can envision a situation where the content is free but you can purchase premium versions with enhanced lesson plans and interactivity. Kind of like free and paid apps.

To make this a reality, I'd consider building a platform that serves as a centralized repository for open information/knowledge and gives the information some structure (Ontology). With that in place, people can build applications on top of the open information (interactive apps/charts, etc)

To encourage qualified people to contribute, edit, and update the repositories, consider layering in a Quora/StackOverflow type voting/reputation system with a Kickstarter crowd funding component to fund qualified folks and allow them to dedicate significant time to the project.

Re: California State Senator Proposes Funding Open-Source Textbooks

#12

Post by jonnycowboy »

breckinloggins wrote: post #6

I think the whole CONCEPT of a "textbook" needs to change: 1. It should be open-source or available on your nearest "App Store" for a REASONABLE price 2. It should be interactive. If I have a history textbook describing a battle, I want to be able to watch the battle unfold (even if it's just a diagram). If I am reading a chemistry textbook, let me play with the molecule. When I need to learn about the D3 group in Ab…

Is there any software to seamless convert XML to Latex (to PDF) to HTML and vice/versa? That would go a long way to helping with the relatively poor formatting of the current efforts.

Re: California State Senator Proposes Funding Open-Source Textbooks

#13

Post by Raphael »

lukejduncan wrote: post #2

Wait, What? Anyone know what this might mean? FTA: "In some ways these guys are looking outdated. File-sharing as a means to pirate content is becoming yesterday's technology,"

Obviously, the sophisticated pirates of today use telepathy now and thus have no need for files.

Re: California State Senator Proposes Funding Open-Source Textbooks

#14

Post by yannis »

jonnycowboy wrote: post #12
breckinloggins wrote: post #6

I think the whole CONCEPT of a "textbook" needs to change: 1. It should be open-source or available on your nearest "App Store" for a REASONABLE price 2. It should be interactive. If I have a history textbook describing a battle, I want to be able to watch the battle unfold (even if it's just a diagram). If I am reading a chemistry textbook, let me play with the molecule. When I need to learn about the D3 group in Ab…

Is there any software to seamless convert XML to Latex (to PDF) to HTML and vice/versa? That would go a long way to helping with the relatively poor formatting of the current efforts.

Drop by http://tex.stackexchange.com/

Re: California State Senator Proposes Funding Open-Source Textbooks

#15

Post by gringomorcego »

The state of textbooks is so fucking sad. I still don't get how Bill Gates or another richy-rich hasn't realized how fucking great it would be to pay 100k to an awesome professor for writing a textbook and publishing it under a CC license. If you did that with all subjects, and paid for translations, and made it all digital, it would cost next to nothing in the large scheme and be more beneficial to humanity than the cure to polio or malaria or heck even cancer. It would have an exponentially awesome effect.

Accelerating the rate at which humanity is educated is fundamentally more important than anything going on today, and it's always pushed back because the generation that's currently being educated doesn't have a fucking say in the matter.

Someone should take some of their money out of their hedge fund and drop it on this shit pronto.

Re: California State Senator Proposes Funding Open-Source Textbooks

#16

Post by breckinloggins »

mikepmalai wrote: post #11
breckinloggins wrote: post #6

I think the whole CONCEPT of a "textbook" needs to change: 1. It should be open-source or available on your nearest "App Store" for a REASONABLE price 2. It should be interactive. If I have a history textbook describing a battle, I want to be able to watch the battle unfold (even if it's just a diagram). If I am reading a chemistry textbook, let me play with the molecule. When I need to learn about the D3 group in Ab…

I can envision a situation where the content is free but you can purchase premium versions with enhanced lesson plans and interactivity. Kind of like free and paid apps. To make this a reality, I'd consider building a platform that serves as a centralized repository for open information/knowledge and gives the information some structure (Ontology). With that in place, people can build applications on top of the open…

I could see this working well. I think these new types of textbooks would gain a foothold not by some epic battle between the entrenched publishers and open content revolutionaries, but simply by being affordable and valuable enough that students start using them in ADDITION to the textbooks they are currently forced to buy. Similar to Khan Academy's current position.

Then, if the ecosystem hits critical mass, it won't be too long before some professors and teachers start saying "wait... why are we making students use this crappy book again?"

I'm aware that the last part is a bit naive, but I think it's REALLY naive to think that we will see a massive legislature-driven transition to "the right thing" anytime before the sun goes dark.

Re: California State Senator Proposes Funding Open-Source Textbooks

#17

Post by maratd »

New Jersey resident proposes California State Senator stay out of education and focus on reducing his state's budget deficit.

Open-Source Textbooks ARE a good idea. However, just like Wikipedia didn't need the government to get started ... this gem doesn't require the government either. It'll happen once eBooks become more prevalent and there is nothing the government should do to help or stop it from happening.

Re: California State Senator Proposes Funding Open-Source Textbooks

#18

Post by sukuriant »

gringomorcego wrote: post #15

The state of textbooks is so fucking sad. I still don't get how Bill Gates or another richy-rich hasn't realized how fucking great it would be to pay 100k to an awesome professor for writing a textbook and publishing it under a CC license. If you did that with all subjects, and paid for translations, and made it all digital, it would cost next to nothing in the large scheme and be more beneficial to humanity than the…

Bill Gates and his team is already working very hard on Education Reform. You're going to want to look up the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for more information regarding what they do. I'm sure they've considered text books and are working through the best options.

Re: California State Senator Proposes Funding Open-Source Textbooks

#19

Post by azernik »

ivansavz wrote: post #7
jonhohle wrote: post #3

This seems so obvious that it's painful to think that it hasn't already been done. It would be awesome to see a non-profit started which provided a repository for textbook content, a platform for mixing and matching content to meet the curriculum of a particular district, and a toolchain to produce digital copies of the books in the format used by the district - all open source and released under broadly permissive l…

> repository for textbook content, > a platform for mixing and matching > content to meet the curriculum This would be awesome indeed, but there are some problems. From the things that i have seen so far, (ex: cnx.org), the content is predominantly of low quality. Simply put, ask the average person to explain something to you and he/she won't do a very good job. The other thing is that modularization completely brake…

That's what I find to be the most interesting part of this project: instead of just relying on the instinct of the crowd, the idea is to put state money into funding the writing of these books, and using the Creative Commons licensing to make it free to copy and distribute and to allow instructors to make corrections or create customized versions for their classes.

Re: California State Senator Proposes Funding Open-Source Textbooks

#20

Post by yungchin »

jonnycowboy wrote: post #12
breckinloggins wrote: post #6

I think the whole CONCEPT of a "textbook" needs to change: 1. It should be open-source or available on your nearest "App Store" for a REASONABLE price 2. It should be interactive. If I have a history textbook describing a battle, I want to be able to watch the battle unfold (even if it's just a diagram). If I am reading a chemistry textbook, let me play with the molecule. When I need to learn about the D3 group in Ab…

Is there any software to seamless convert XML to Latex (to PDF) to HTML and vice/versa? That would go a long way to helping with the relatively poor formatting of the current efforts.

There's pandoc, http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/ but it doesn't magically give you great page layouts in any format, if that's what you meant.
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