As many of you know I am a big fan of a website called slashdot ( www.slashdot.org ). They act as a news aggregation point for news that would be of interest to techies everywhere. Further, there is a great system for driving comments. But that's not the point of this blog....
While reading slashdot, I came across an article that describes a foundation which focuses on open-source education. But not in the typical sense - they are not interested in building computer labs using linux, or switching the productivity suites (MS-Office, etc.) to Open Office dot Org. Interestingly, they are interested in providing open-source textbooks ! Check them out at www.ck12.org
Consider the venerable old textbooks we all used when we were younger. Some 400 pages of paper dedicated to providing instruction on quadratic equations or the Battle of Waterloo. These things weighed a ton, and the information contained within didn't change very often. To quote Scott McNealy (co-founder of Sun Microsystems), "10+10 has been 20 for a long time" ! That's not to say that sometimes the information does change - remember, Pluto is no longer considered a planet in our solar system !
The use of textbooks has been a sore spot in educational circles for years. One side of the debate argues that the textbooks can become out of date before they are even delivered to the students. But these textbooks can cost in the hundreds of dollars, which can overburden an School Division.
Who then is responsible for them ? As municipal governments try to stretch their budgets, many costs of education get passed on to the parents. Textbooks & school supplies are a very lucrative (and expensive) market. I have two children, and every August we download the list of supplies from the School Division, and trudge of to Wal-Mart to stock up. Last year, we were north of $200 per child ! Oh, and that didn't include textbooks !
The other side of the debate posits that we not use textbooks, and rely more on the teacher's abilities to convey the material, often photocopied from workshop materials ! Remember the mimeograph machine ? Blue-inked copies of hand-written notes, created by the teacher. But these are created as one-off solutions, without the benefits of any standards or governing bodies.
Many school divisions rely heavily on the re-creation of their own content. Provided the material follows the Provincial guidelines, they are acceptable for use. But then WITHOUT a standard textbook, how am I as a parent supposed to help my child with their homework ? I will be the first to admit, that I do not keep up with Algebra & Earth Sciences. Without the original textbook to refer to, I cannot be much help in my child's education.
But now we are in an age of digital everything. We can view beautiful works of art in high-definition on devices like the iPad. We listen to music in MP3 format, downloaded from iTunes. We have eReader technology that allows us to download books & novels from Chapters, Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Google has even applied open-source principles by publishing literally thousands of classics in ePub format.
So why NOT do this with textbooks ? Why can't the information be open, just like the contents of OpenCourseWare ? This is a collective of higher-education institutions making their courseware freely available for download. Check out http://www.ocwconsortium.org
If these same kids were outfitted with some form of eReader (Kindle, Nook, Sony eReader, etc) then the kids could carry not only their textbooks for this year, but they could store past year's texts for reference ! teachers could publish their notes in PDF format, and these too could be loaded on the eReader.
I am very excited about this project, and the promise it carries for the education of our world's children. Please take the time to browse their web-site, and understand the tremendous value this brings to humanity.
The opinions expressed are purely those of the author. Opinions are like noses - everyone has one, and they are entitled to it !
2 comments:
When it comes to child's education, as a mother I understand that it is not always possible to help children doing their homework. Although, parents, especially mother is the best teacher in a child’s life. The way, she can guide a child, no other can! However, sometimes, it becomes hard for the parents to help children doing homework. In that case, they can take advantage of online tutoring services like tutorteddy.com.
I am part of a similar project named the bookathon project. We aim to make books specefically for O levels students. But yes, it does not launch in another 10 days. After launch, we also expect one year of work until we reach ck12's level. Wish us luck.
Post a Comment