Driving Awareness, Adoptions, and Affordability

October 2009 Blog Posts (9)

Recent articles/opinions on open and digital textbooks

All of these articles/opinions appeared in October.

School chooses Kindle; are libraries for the history 'books'?

..partnering with Oxford University to offer any materials it develops as a free, open-source guide.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-10-26-kindle-school-library_N.htm

Bookstores and Beyond - Some interesting statistics on textbook costs and some… Continue

Added by Howard Emmons on October 31, 2009 at 4:11pm — No Comments

DoE Arne Duncan Proposes Unbundling Higher Education

More details about the Obama's vision for open online courses for community colleges are slowly emerging. In his Politico op-ed piece, titled "Moving college into the 21st century," Arne Duncan, Secretary of the Department of Education speaks to the unbundling of higher education to improve access:

"Beyond these investments in our future, one part of the AGI (Amrican Graduation Initiative) has the… Continue

Added by Judy Baker on October 23, 2009 at 11:37am — No Comments

Online Presentation about Creative Commons, Open Education, "Journalism 2.0" Project - TONIGHT!

Steve Hargadon, Founder of Classroom 2.0, announces that Esther Wojcicki will give an online presentation tonight about Creative Commons, Open Education, and a new "Journalism 2.0" project she's helping to launch.

"Esther Wojcicki has been a Journalism/English teacher at Palo Alto High School in Palo Alto, California for the past 25 years where she built the journalism program from a small group of 20 students in 1985 to the largest high school journalism program in the nation… Continue

Added by Judy Baker on October 21, 2009 at 12:23pm — No Comments

Faculty Attitudes Toward Open Textbooks

A recent study by the Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE) on faculty attitudes toward affordable and open textbooks reveals no surprises, however this information provides greater insight than existing anecdotal evidence.

The results indicate that faculty need a greater diversity of open textbook choices than what currently exists in order to achieve widespread… Continue

Added by Judy Baker on October 20, 2009 at 8:14pm — No Comments

OER in the news

You may be interested in today's Huffington Post article by Curriki's Barbara Kurshan about various sustainability models for OER. See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-barbara-kurshan/free-education----sustain_b_313397.html

Added by Judy Baker on October 13, 2009 at 4:48pm — No Comments

Ignou- Doctor M community college in Kerala

A community college by name ignou doctor m community college is estblished by Dr Majeed an educationalist based in Kollam Keral. He is the Founder Chairman of A.M College of pharmacy in kerala.The community college has designed a number of innovatve programme required for the community

Added by DR P.V. MAJEED on October 11, 2009 at 7:55am — No Comments

Two Open Textbooks Nominated for the Special Academic Recognition

Jacky Hood, Director, Open Textbook Collaborative at Foothill College, nominated two open textbooks for special academic recognition.

"Collaborative Statistics", by Barbara Illowsky and Susan Dean, was nominated for the 2010 William Holmes McGuffey Longevity Award. The McGuffey Award was created in 1993 to recognize textbooks and… Continue

Added by Bill Buxton on October 9, 2009 at 4:54pm — 1 Comment

Open Textbooks and Articulation?

Two articles in the September 2009 issue of the Senate Rostrum newsletter address the topic of open educational resources, open textbooks, and articulation.

Barbara Illowsky authored the first article, titled: "And the Textbook Is ... Free? Introduction to Open Educational Resources," in which she explains how faculty can impact educational costs for students by adopting open… Continue

Added by Judy Baker on October 8, 2009 at 3:55pm — No Comments

Essay on "Brief Overview of Public Policy on OER"

Today, an essay was posted to the Publius Project on "A Brief Overview of Public Policy on OER from California Community Colleges to the Obama Administration" authored by Carolina Rossini and Erhardt Graeff of the Berkman Center at Harvard University.

Excerpt from the essay: "OER encourages and enables the open production, sharing of, and access to educational content and resources. This alone is a valuable societal good,… Continue

Added by Judy Baker on October 1, 2009 at 10:00am — No Comments