Group items tagged

In light of demands by the State of Texas for biology textbooks with "balanced"  treatment of evolution. "So here's the missing piece: what about the textbook companies? When this issue is discussed, the publishers are talked about as if they have no agency, no ability to affect the outcome of these events. But they're morally culpable for participating in these farces. If they wanted, they could stand up to the state of Texas. So how can the people who work at a publisher in good conscience agree to write a biology textbook that treats evolution as a wild, unsupported idea?

Examples of how academics may be striking back at high textbook prices. May have dramatic effects on the textbook market, over time.

Several universities have recently tried a new model for delivering textbooks in hopes of saving students money: requiring purchase of e-textbooks and charging students a materials fee to cover the costs. A recent report on some of those pilot projects, however, shows that many students find the e-textbooks "clumsy" and prefer print.

While several colleges across the country are pushing electronic textbooks, touting them as more efficient and less cumbersome than regular textbooks, students are reluctant. E-textbooks still account for only 9% of textbook purchases, says Student Monitor, which researches college student behavior.

Are textbooks history in the digital era? : States across the country are slashing education budgets, forcing schools to cut expenses. One option getting a lot of attention is digital textbooks. Stacey Vanek-Smith reports.

Established educational publishers are beginning - slowly - to adapt to the future of textbooks and the needs of their readers. Note that open textbook initiatives may overtake the entrenched publishers.

Students hate textbook publishers; textbook publishers hate that students resell, reuse, and download copies of their texts. Is there a middle ground, a sustainable business model where all parties have a sense of fairness?

This week, California took a big step forward in open-source education. Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a proposal to create a website that will allow students to download popular textbooks for free. The legislation contains two bills: One, a proposal for the state to fund 50 open-source digital textbooks, targeted to lower-division courses, which will be produced by California's universities. The other bill is a proposal to establish a California Digital Open Source Library to host those books.

Interest in the digital future of textbook publishing picks up.

Debate on the costs of college textbooks.  I think we did a better job at last year's SPI.

Last week, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed replacing school textbooks with e-books in order to help plug a state budget gap. Now, textbook giant Pearson has responded with digital content to supplement California's programs in biology, chemistry, algebra 2, and geometry.

Let the revolution begin!!

Possible generation-gap-type issues for digital educational publishing for colleges: "Today, the college assumes all students not only have computer skills but a plethora of high-tech devices and services. The class schedule and registration procedure is entirely online-even if you're in the registrar's office....In the first class, the professor handed out her e-mail address and the URL where the syllabus could be found--instead of her office phone number and a copy of the syllabus. Unfortunately, the college sites are full of graphics and animations and download very slowly on my dial-up connection. (Even if I could afford a broadband connection, my ISP doesn't provide it in my area.)" "At least one exercise in each chapter requires accessing the publisher's textbook Web site. Many of these exercises could just as easily be put on the computer disk also sold-at an increased profit (I used to work for a textbook-preparation company)-with the text....Again, a dial-up connection won't download the videos. The audio files are .mp3; I can't open them, don't have the skill to know what program I need, and have no access to free technical support....So once every chapter I head for either the heavily used public library or the equally heavily used computer lab in the college's suburban learning center (branch campus)--and hope that a computer is available."

Textbook pricing continues to be an issue, and open source alternatives gain attention. 

Interesting pilot program at Northwest Missouri State University using the Sony e-reader for digital textbooks.

Macmillan is introducing software that will allow college instructors to edit digital editions of textbooks without consulting the original authors or publisher.

This seems like a pretty fabulous idea to me from the student side....I could see why publishers probably aren't terribly thrilled though. (I'd be interested to see an adaptation for renting e-books, which isn't mentioned in the article as being extant...yet, anyway). Netflix for textbooks, indeed!

Interesting report on adopting e-textbooks.  Important to remember how early we are in the development of e-readers and that we have few texts developed explicitly for e-readers.

Amazon will unveil a new Kindle e-book reader with features designed to appeal to periodical and academic- textbook publishers.