Kristy Bloxham

Why don't State Governments Encourage and Adopt Open-Source Textbooks for their School?
It may seem like a simple question given the obvious outcomes of cost savings and easily update-able text, but the debate is large and the issues are heated. Let's take a look at some of the things going on out there.

What is the dream?

Mind-blowing online multimedia textbooks that could be used by students all across the country. Imagine 50 teams, each made up of individuals who took a paid sabbatical for one year, working to create rigorous, standards-based, online textbooks that included text, graphics, electronic presentations, audio, video, simulations, learning games, interactive problem-solving and review activities, etc. The teams could be comprised as follows: 0. 16 expert teachers * $100,000 each = $1,600,000 0. 4 university professors * $100,000 each = $400,000 0. 8 computer / Web programmers * $100,000 each = $800,000 0. 1 assistive technology expert * $100,000 = $100,000 0. 1 national organization representative * $100,000 = $100,000 0. 1 project manager * $200,000 = $200,000 0. Communication and other software, supplies, travel, etc. = $800,000 Four teachers plus a professor plus two programmers equals a workgroup; four workgroups per team. Each team receives ongoing feedback from a representative from an appropriate national organization (e.g., National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, National Council for Social Studies), has an assistive technology expert to ensure content accessibility by students with disabilities, and has a project manager to keep the workgroups moving along. The workgroups create content; post that content online as they go along for review, comment, and input from others; and, over the course of a year, create several units each that add up to a complete, amazing, deep, rich online multimedia textbook. Each year would see the completion of 50 textbooks. Over three or four years, these Department-sponsored teams would create 150 to 200 textbooks for common, key courses (e.g., Algebra I, Physics I, AP English, United States History, 5th grade reading) that are present in nearly every school district nationwide. Textbook content would be refreshed every three or four years to ensure content relevance and usage of the latest digital technologies. If the textbooks were wiki-based, much of the content could be revised and updated even before their refresh cycle came due. Once created, these textbooks then could be hosted by the Department, state departments of education, and other entities or could be downloaded for hosting on local school district servers.

Or from Fred Beshears : The idea of establishing a global coalition of similar size that would acquire and distribute high quality creative commons content that could be used in any of the following combinations: a) as the basis of an online course, b) as an electronic textbook, or c) as a customized printed textbook for use in a traditional college course.The second thing that will be free is a complete curriculum (in all languages) from Kindergarten through the University level. There are several projects underway to make this a reality, including our own Wikibooks project, but of course this is a much bigger job than the encyclopedia, and it will take much longer.

And Lessig: In the long run, it will be very difficult for proprietary textbook publishers to compete with freely licensed alternatives. An open project with dozens of professors adapting and refining a textbook on a particular subject will be a very difficult thing for a proprietary publisher to compete with. The point is: there are a huge number of people who are qualified to write these books, and the tools are being created to leave them to do that.



It seems like a Utopia of sorts. But what obstacles need to be overcome.

Our Current State of Affairs

WHEN school opens this year, nearly a million error-riddled textbooks will yet again be supplied to public schools nationwide.

This was revealed by Antonio Go, the educator who blew the whistle on errors found in a History textbook two years ago, in yesterday’s Senate hearing on the “textbook scam.”

Go, the academic supervisor of the Marian School of Quezon City, said the newly approved public school textbook on Social Studies, Ang Bagong Pilipino, has “more than 100 errors.”

“Why had this been allowed to happen?” said Go, who has been reviewing “defective textbooks” for 10 years now. “This is the biggest error, teaching children things that are wrong.”

Comments from Gary Stager insist that textbooks are a technology that has had an enormously deleterious affect on learning. They are filled with homogenized factoids, written by anonymous committees possessing dubious qualifications and are designed to enforce a uniform teaching experience regardless of individual student differences. Textbooks are by definition one-size-fits-all approaches to teaching in which learning is at best an accidental side effect.

I’ve seen countless cases where a school district has gone to extraordinary lengths in order to fund new textbook purchases. In one case, science teachers were fired so the district could afford new science textbooks. Politicians get elected promising new textbooks and under-funded schools beg for textbook money.

This is the golden age of (real) publishing. I like to take teachers to the local bookstore and demonstrate that there are better trade paperbacks on any subject at every conceivable developmental level than a textbook. Yet, states spend billion on such backpack ballast and add insult to injury by requiring that the books not be updated for five, or in some cases, ten years. Underestimate the power of the textbook industry at your peril. Where do large district superintendents work after they retire? Textbook companies. Why? They are hired for their rolodex and access to other superintendents (re: customers) Visit Austin, Texas and see the textbook publishing offices walking distance from the state capital. Coincidence? Hardly!

Three foreign conglomerates control the vast majority of American textbooks. Why isn’t Tom Friedman or the Congress upset about turning our educational system over to foreigners? These same companies control standardized testing and test-prep. Their dominance is formidable and likely to be with us for a very long time. 

So what is currently happening?

Progress into the Future

The State of Utah has recently adopted all three levels of Kinetic Books' digital physics textbooks as primary physics textbooks. Now Utah high school students are able to use fully digital texts instead of printed textbooks to learn physics. These new textbooks from Kinetic Books are created from scratch for the new media, and take advantage of digital capabilities such as simulations, computer-guided homework and animated lectures.

"My students are motivated to be active, independent learners," said Douglas Hendricks, physics teacher at the Academy for Math, Engineering, and Science in Salt Lake City. "They have so much fun doing the labs I've assigned them that many students come in on their own during lunchtime to explore the other modules-the ones that I didn't assign them -- without even asking for extra credit for doing so."

"Electronic resources have already replaced printed references, starting with Microsoft Encarta and now with the research capabilities of web engines like Google," said Kinetic Books' CEO Bruce Jacobsen. "The same transition will occur with textbooks in main subjects. Students and teachers tell us every day they prefer a digital physics textbook to a print one. They are more engaging and more efficient to use."

One high school student who used a Kinetic Books textbook remarked: "Beyond making physics enjoyable, the digital textbook made concepts a great deal simpler to understand without forfeiting meaning. My printed textbook, on the other hand, makes me feel like an ESL student in his first day of class."

In addition to covering all the material in printed texts and offering the benefits of interactivity, Kinetic Books digital textbooks cost less to purchase-relieving a major concern for many cash-strapped students, parents and schools. Pricing starts at $24.95, about one-third the cost of a printed textbook, and schools and universities can choose from multiple licensing models to fit their needs. "Digital distribution is much more cost efficient than printing and distributing traditional textbooks. http://www.send2press.com/newswire/2006-01-0119-002.shtml

Another exciting concept is something called Connexions. It’s “an experimental, open-source/open content project. . . that gives a learner. . . free access to educational materials that can be readily manipulated to suite her individual learning style. . . . The free software tools also foster the development, manipulation, and continuous refinement of educational material by diverse communities of authors and teachers.”

What does that mean, exactly? When it’s up and running, Connexions will offer an online library of networked content that will allow instructors to pick and choose best-of-breed instructional materials. Experts around the world will develop and contribute modules of information specific to their own expertise. These modules — which may take the form of individual chapters, or even smaller sections of chapters — will act as a giant, constantly evolving library of information that can be tweaked to any given instructor’s satisfaction.

By selecting specific modules and then using Connexion’s free, XML-based editing tools to modify the emphasis of a given course, instructors will be able to create custom textbooks. Students could then go to Kinko’s and order a custom text incorporating the latest research, the best pedagogy — tailored to match their professor’s teaching style and the specific goals of the course at hand. Theoretically, the library will function across disciplines, and will aid teachers and students from kindergarten through graduate school. So far, more than 1000 modules now form the basis for nine electrical and computer engineering courses at Rice.

If that sounds ambitious, think about this: Connexions isn’t just about creating a collection of bite-sized informational chunks. It’s also about fostering a quantum leap in the evolution of literacy — something akin to the development of the first written language or the creation of the printing press. “My perspective about this,” says Burrus, “is not that it’s a just a product of one teacher’s frustrations. I think what we’re doing truly has the potential to change the way people think.”



Hope for a Better Tomorrow

With all of the possibilities, contention, and problems associated with the emergence of open-source textbooks my hope for a better tomorrow can be summed up by Christine Gregoire when she said; "I am willing to take risks, and willing to tolerate failure as long as we admit it, can learn from it and keep moving forward."

Sources for "Why aren't there Open-Source Textbooks"