
George Nikitin/AP
Costs and Content Driving Educators Online for Classroom Resources
With educational costs soaring for both students and schools, many are turning to online resources to supplement textbooks.
30-Second Summary
From primary schools to college lecture halls, students and administrators are heading online in search of reliable content from an increasingly large group of publishers.
However cost is not the only factor driving classes online. Schools and universities are finding their resources quickly dated, forcing them to pay more often.
“Usually textbooks are out of date as soon as you print them,” said Dana Lanham, a University of North Carolina professor who plans on using a new no-fee online textbook program.
Starting small with textbooks for just four business and finance classes, Flat Earth Knowledge is one of many online content providers venturing into education literature.
Meanwhile, companies such as Connexions, based at Rice University, have settled on a building-block approach, with series of short lessons and explanations that can be mixed and matched to create curriculum.
Flexibility, low costs and an ability to be updated regularly have made this type of open source content increasingly popular among school districts and universities.
While there is no shortage of demand, businesses and critics are watching to see if the various online providers have found a business model that actually turns a profit.
Flat Earth plans to make most of their profit from the sale of supplementary material, though detractors have suggested that this would not be enough to attract quality academic contributors.
However cost is not the only factor driving classes online. Schools and universities are finding their resources quickly dated, forcing them to pay more often.
“Usually textbooks are out of date as soon as you print them,” said Dana Lanham, a University of North Carolina professor who plans on using a new no-fee online textbook program.
Starting small with textbooks for just four business and finance classes, Flat Earth Knowledge is one of many online content providers venturing into education literature.
Meanwhile, companies such as Connexions, based at Rice University, have settled on a building-block approach, with series of short lessons and explanations that can be mixed and matched to create curriculum.
Flexibility, low costs and an ability to be updated regularly have made this type of open source content increasingly popular among school districts and universities.
While there is no shortage of demand, businesses and critics are watching to see if the various online providers have found a business model that actually turns a profit.
Flat Earth plans to make most of their profit from the sale of supplementary material, though detractors have suggested that this would not be enough to attract quality academic contributors.
Headline Links: ‘Toss the Traditional Textbook’
With schools and universities increasingly strapped for funds, new and existing companies are turning their attention toward the open source education marketplace. Varied approaches exist, but for now, no single company has found a business model that attracts attention beyond single districts or institutions.
Source: Edutopia
Hoping to pose a challenge to the multi-billion dollar publishing industry, companies such as Flat Earth Knowledge are attempting to place entire textbooks online for students to use, though critics suggest that their business plan does not allow for the recruitment of reliably quality contributors.
Source: Time Magazine
Video: The open source Web
Connexions founder Richard Baraniuk addressed the TED conference in 2006, outlining his approach to open source, not just for textbooks, but for all information online, which could be molded to fit the needs of a teacher or student.
Source: TED
Reactions: Open source advocacy
Taking a statewide approach to educational advocacy, the California Open Source Textbook Project aims to collect support for open copyright material available for all teachers online. In addition to allowing an easier, freer approach to educational resources, the organization is hoping to use the access to leverage better prices with textbook publishers.
Source: The California Open Source Textbook Project
Taking an advocacy approach to open source content, the Student Public Interest Research Group has compiled a list of university professors willing to promote online learning content. Gathering over 1,000 signatures, the group aimed to draw attention to what they saw as unfairly priced textbooks.
Source: Inside Higher Ed
Opinion & Analysis: Jimmy Wales
Taking the idea of open source step further, Jimmy Wales and Richard Baraniuk, founders of Wikipedia and Connexions, respectively, have argued for an open community approach to educational resources, including textbooks. While the question of how to monitor such an approach remains unanswered, the open and free community will provide an easier, more affordable and more reliable resource for educators.
Source: Policy Innovations
Related Topics: Wikipedia ‘flagging’; open source software
In an effort to avoid criticism that surrounds open source community resources, sites such as Wikipedia have begun to experiment with “flagging” changes to entries. These flagged entries would have to be reviewed by a subject “expert” before they could be posted. Currently, Wikipedia has begun trial versions of this system in Germany and Egypt.
Source: Mashable
In addition to open source content, educators are increasingly turning to open source software to build and expand a digital environment for their school or even individual classroom. These sites afford teachers the opportunity to create an online classroom environment, though issues of privacy and content have limited their uses in many schools across the country.
Source: Educause
Bridging the gap between traditional publishing and online open content, Germany’s Bertelsmann publishing has announced they will attempt to release the first hard-copy version of a Wikipedia guide. Providing the 50,000 most commonly searched-for terms of the last two years, accompanied by abbreviated entries, the effort is meant to prove that online resources do not necessarily mean the end of traditional publishing.
Source: France24

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