Open Source Books
Via Stephen’s Web:
Ben Crowell has a really interesting article exploring the concept of free books. If you’ve ever lamented about the rising costs of your school’s text books, or if you would like to explore digital options, check out this article.
“With the cost of college textbooks up 62% over the last decade,[1] pressure is building for an alternative model of publishing: the free book. Five years ago, an author had to be very persistent — maybe even a little crazy — to try the new approach. But now a whole new infrastructure is springing up to make it easier. “(Crowell)
The read/write classroom is about many things, but up near the top of “important things” is the ability of students to be able to hunt down information, connect with it, interact with and reflect upon it, and then write their own content as a result. Open source books are, in my humble opinion, a giant step for 2.0 teachers and students.
Related links you will find interesting:
The Textbook Revolution http://textbookrevolution.org/ - There’s an RSS feed if you want to monitor the site.
— For you ESL teachers out there, there’s even a section for you!
The Assayer - Ben Crowell’s collection of free books.
Open source books are a great addition to the web.
I have accessed many works via. Representative Poetry Online, which I believe is a project of the University of Toronto…a great source for literary works, complete with footnotes.
I have also read half of Dickens’ ‘Tale of Two Cities’ via the net while I was waiting for a paper copy to arrive at the local library…I must admit it wasn’t a bad experience.
The problem is that we assume access is available…ie the texts are free so long as you have access to a computer that is jacked into the net. This suggests either free public use to tech. or ownership, even if it is rented from a cybercafe at an hourly basis.
Ownership suggests property, which suggests access to currency.
If currency is not available, then access is denied. The ‘net text’ comes with a price, just like a ‘paper text’.
I do think, however, that online texts are a great asset and a step in the direction of making information ‘free’ and accessible to a global audience (that speaks a common language. all the texts I have encountered thus far have been in the language of commerce and capitalism — english ) .
my two skeptical cents…( in the currency of capitalism)
Comment by James Matthew — December 20, 2005 @ 11:31 pm