Jun
29
Free Digital Textbook Initiative: The New Model
June 29, 2009 | Tagged CLRN, digital textbook initiative, disruptive innovation | 1 Comment
Today’s post is about how I believe the textbook industry’s upcoming changes will parallel those that emerged from the music industry, which is just completing their morphing. I’d like to thank several of you who commented, particularly “Zingy Learning” who tweeted, “I’m wondering, even if the publishing companies moved to digital media would they be able to make a profit?” Michael Jahan tweeted, “it is really about a change in the distribution model !” and N Tardiff commented, “Like many others, I completely agree that the textbook industry needs to change. Creating a standards-aligned textbook for a state w/ rigorous standards like CA requires a lot of effort, and it only seems fair that people be compensated for that effort.”
True, so true.
For insight into what might happen with textbooks and the publishing industry, let’s consider what happened to the music industry lately. Music publishers don’t create content. Instead, they sign artists who create. While music publishers may or may not end up end up owning the music they publish, the digital music disruptive innovation, created several new paths for music distribution.
Take open source music, for example. Not unlike the beginning of the textbook disruptive innovation, a network of open source music slowly grew and is just now reaching critical mass. Jamendo, the largest of the open source distribution sites, currently contains more than 21,000 free, Creative Commons-licensed, albums. Sure, 20K albums are probably unworthy of my download, but many are. A quick scan of my iTunes library shows that 500 of my 3500 songs are from Jamendo. I began using Jamendo three years ago as a source of Creative Common’s-licensed music to use in my podcasts. I quickly discovered, though, that quite a few albums were worthy of a place on my iPod. Free, or open source, content can be of high quality.
On the commercial side of the aisle, music companies are beginning to realize that customers haven’t stopped purchasing music. However, publishing has diverged in two separate directions that will forever affect their business. First, the CD business is dead, just in case you’ve not received the news. In it’s place are digital purchases from Amazon, the iTunes store, and others. This will continue to be a viable, money-making model. However, some artists, discovering that they don’t really need publishers, have created their own online distribution network. The music industry and self-publishers will exist side by side.
So, the music disruptive innovation created three separate, independent paths: open source music, digital downloads from traditional publishers, and downloads from self-publishers. We can expect the same to be true with the textbook disruptive innovation. Expect to see more open source content created by professors, non-profit organizations, and perhaps even states. Aggregator sites, like Textbook Revolution, and CLRN will broadcast their existence.
Traditional textbook publishers will quickly realize that while paper may not be dead, yet, they should prepare for its demise by creating both direct-to-digital downloads and online, interactive versions of their books. This could be an opportunity for textbook and software publishers to collaborate on truly innovative learning experiences. Their strength will be in connecting all the dots, providing value-added content and services (like professional development), and in being the interface between content developers and the public. Only a company like Pearson would have the clout to encourage Amazon to create a cheaper version of Kindle for schools. The last leg, though, will be self-publishing by content creators, and while many may prefer to continue leasing their work to publishers, some may choose to strike out on their own.
The textbook industry is about to undergo a revolution, but the results may parallel those of the music industry.
disruptive innovation digital textbook initiative CLRN
Jun
23
Free Digital Textbook Initiative: It’s not about Money.
June 23, 2009 | Tagged CLRN, disruptive innovation, Free Digital Textbook Initiative | 3 Comments
That’s right. California’s free digital textbook initiative is not about the money districts can save.
Yes, i know what the Governor said. Yes, i know the criticism the initiative has taken regarding doubts of cost savings. However, those doubts, as I’ve already written about, are unfounded. A free, high-quality textbook trumps a $100 high-quality textbook any day for the same reasons that districts utilize open source Linux as their computer operating system or use the free Open Office as their productive suite.
Digital textbooks are a Disruptive Innovation, and as such, they will both create new companies while destroying others. The FDTI, in my opinion, is a wake-up call to the textbook industry that their world is about to change and that it’s time to chart a new course.
Imagine that you were CEO of Eastman-Kodak 15 years ago. Would you ever expect that you would no longer sell film? If your whole business model was tied to selling and developing film, how would you react to digital cameras? Would you think it a passing fad or would you prepare your company for a time in the not to far distant future when you would stop making film? (Kodak announced on June 22nd that they would discontinue make Kodachrome film.) Textbook companies are in the same position today. Just like Kodak, they see that electronic textbooks, whether they be fixed PDFs or interactive web sites, are becoming more prevalent, but that they have not yet passed a tipping point.
What should they do? Should textbook companies react as the music industry did 10 years ago? Should they go kicking and screaming into the future? As digital music reached the tipping point, the recording industry began to see a drop in CD sales, which they attributed to illegal downloads. They weren’t ready to change. Instead, they reacted by filing lawsuits and lobbying for stricter copyright laws. While they weren’t watching, though, everything changed. As the former head of Yahoo music, Ian Rogers, said, “It’s not the music industry that is dying, it’s the CD business.” The music industry was so fixed in maintaining their past business model, that they weren’t prepared when the paradigm shifted. Now that nearly anyone can master, duplicate, and market music, power has shifted from the label to the artist, creating a new middle class of artists and giving consumers greater choice.
You can expect the same thing to happen with the textbook publishing industry. Disruptive Innovations do that. Once the cost of the innovation comes down and the quality surpasses current products, the disruption takes over and the originating industry dies.
The Free Digital Textbook Initiative is not about money. It’s about a paradigm shift.
disruptive innovation free digital textbook initiative CLRN
Jun
19
Free Digital Textbook Initiative: CLRN’s Review Process
June 19, 2009 | Tagged Free Digital Textbook Initiative | 1 Comment
With textbook submissions complete, CLRN is now turning our attention to reviewing the 20 free textbooks that have been submitted for review. In the first phase, CLRN searched for and contacted a variety of open source content developers to encourage them to participate in the Governor’s initiative. We weren’t expecting that there would be scores of available books, but we were surprised by the existence of several projects that either create or collect open source textbooks. Today’s post is about CLRN’s review of these digital textbooks.
CLRN’s Textbook Review Process
- Because traditional textbooks represent a “full course of study” and they are not interactive, we modified our entry process, created customized standards correlation documents, and provided publishers with personal assistance during their submission.
- During the week of June 22nd, CLRN will conduct science reviews at Humboldt County Office of Education and mathematics reviews at Kings County Office of Education.
- While CLRN’s review coordinators and trained reviewers are highly competent in their subject areas, CLRN staff will attend reviews.
- Counter to CLRN’s reviews of supplemental electronic learning resources, textbook reviews will be limited to verifying each and every content standard. CLRN will not be applying California’s Social Content criteria, as we do with electronic learning resource reviews.
- For those standards that are partially met, CLRN’s reviewers will annotate which parts of a standard are missing. This information will later be available within our published reviews.
- While these are digital textbooks, we have printed out two copies of each book for our reviewers to make it easier to find the standards outlined in the publisher’s standards correlation documents and the textbook.
- The amount of time it will take to review each book is unknown and is subject to several conditions: how long is the book? (some books are longer than 1000 pages); how many standards are within the particular subject? (geometry has 22 standards while chemistry has 73); how complex is each standard?; and how many standards are partially met?
Once CLRN’s reviewers have completed their work, each review site coordinator will review the results, make corrections, and forward the results back to CLRN central. The entire process is performed online using CLRN’s database. CLRN will then verify that all standards have been reviewed and we will make any corrections to the annotations within partially-met standards. Review results will then be shared with each publisher who will have seven days to respond to any comments or provide additional evidence of their standard’s match. All results will be embargoed until the Governor’s release on August 10th.
free digital textbook initiative CLRN California
Jun
16
Free Digital Textbook Initiative: Complete Submission List
June 16, 2009 | | 2 Comments
A total of 20 free digital textbooks have been submitted to CLRN for California’s Free Digital Textbook Initiative. All eight eligible subjects are represented. Eight entries come from the CK-12 Foundation, which creates open source Flexbooks for K-12 education; six entries are from college professors, five of whom have doctorates in their subject areas; and Pearson Education has submitted four textbooks. The 20 entries include three Biology/Life Sciences and four Calculus textbooks. Over the next few weeks, CLRN’s science reviews will be conducted the Humboldt County Office of Education and mathematics reviews will performed at the Kings County Office of Education. Review results are scheduled to be released on August 10th. We’ll share more about CLRN’s review process for these special digital textbooks in the next post.
Science
Chemistry
Chemistry
URL: http://www.pearsonschool.com/onlinelearninginitiative
Publisher: Pearson Education
Publisher Contact: LearningInitiative@pearson.com
CK-12 Chemistry
URL: http://cafreetextbooks.ck12.org/science/CK12_Chemistry.pdf
Publisher: CK-12 Foundation. CK-12 is a non-profit organization that creates open-source Flexbooks.
Publisher Contact: Neeru Khosla, Neeru@ck12.org
Open Source Chemistry Course
URL:http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Coll_Group_CLRN-OpenSourceChemistryCourse/OpenSourceChemsitryCourseGrades9-12?bc=;Coll_Group_CLRN-OpenSourceChemistryCourse.ELRSubmissionForOpenSourceChemstry
Publisher: Curriki
Contact: Barbara Kurshan, bkurshan@curriki.org
Biology/Life Sciences
Biology
URL: http://www.pearsonschool.com/onlinelearninginitiative
Publisher: Pearson Education
Publisher Contact: LearningInitiative@pearson.com
CK-12 Biology
URL: http://cafreetextbooks.ck12.org/science/CK12_Biology.pdf
Publisher: CK-12 Foundation. CK-12 is a non-profit organization that creates open-source Flexbooks.
Publisher Contact: Neeru Khosla, Neeru@ck12.org
CK-12 Life Science
URL: http://cafreetextbooks.ck12.org/science/CK12_Life_Science.pdf
Publisher: CK-12 Foundation. CK-12 is a non-profit organization that creates open-source Flexbooks.
Publisher Contact: Neeru Khosla, Neeru@ck12.org
Physics
Light and Matter
URL: http://www.lightandmatter.com/books.html
Publisher: Benjamin Crowell. Dr. Crowell teaches physics at Fullerton College in California.
People’s Physics Book
URL: http://cafreetextbooks.ck12.org/science/Peoples_Physics_Book.pdf
Publisher: CK-12 Foundation. CK-12 is a non-profit organization that creates open-source Flexbooks.
Publisher Contact: Neeru Khosla, Neeru@ck12.org
Earth Sciences
CK-12 Earth Science
URL: http://cafreetextbooks.ck12.org/science/CK12_Earth_Science.pdf
Publisher: CK-12 Foundation. CK-12 is a non-profit organization that creates open-source Flexbooks.
Publisher Contact: Neeru Khosla, Neeru@ck12.org
Earth Systems, an Earth Science Course
URL: http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Coll_Group_CLRN-OpenSourceEarthScienceCourse/EarthSystemsAnEarthScienceCourse?viewer=info&bc=
Publisher: Curriki
Publisher Contact: Barbara Kurshan, bkurshan@curriki.org
Introduction to Climate Dynamics and Climate Modeling
URL: http://stratus.astr.ucl.ac.be/textbook/
Publisher: Hugues Goosse. Dr. Goosse is a lecturer at the Université catholique de Louvain in Belgium.
Publisher Contact: Hugues Gosse, hugues.goosse@uclouvain.be
Math
Geometry
CK-12 Geometry
URL: http://cafreetextbooks.ck12.org/math/CK12_Geometry.pdf
Publisher: CK-12 Foundation. CK-12 is a non-profit organization that creates open-source Flexbooks.
Publisher Contact: Neeru Khosla, Neeru@ck12.org
Geometry
URL: http://www.pearsonschool.com/onlinelearninginitiative
Publisher: Pearson Education
Publisher Contact: LearningInitiative@pearson.com
Algebra II
Advanced Algebra II
URL: http://cnx.org/content/m19435/1.4/Advanced_Algebra_2_20090615.pdf
Publisher: Connexions
Publisher Contact: Jonathan Emmons, cnx@cnx.org
Algebra 2
URL: http://www.pearsonschool.com/onlinelearninginitiative
Publisher: Pearson Education
Publisher Contact: LearningInitiative@pearson.com
Calculus
Calculus
URL: http://whitman.mathematics.googlepages.com
Publisher: David Guichard. Mr. Guichard is a professor of mathematics at Whitman College in Washington.
Publisher Contact: David Guichard, guichard@whitman.edu
Calculus
URL: http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/resources/Strang/strangtext.htm
Publisher: Wellesley-Cambridge Press (Gilbert Strang). Dr. Strang is a mathematics processor at MIT.
Publisher Contact: Gilbert Strang, gilstrang@gmail.com
CK-12 Single Variable Calculus
URL: http://cafreetextbooks.ck12.org/math/CK12_Calculus.pdf
Publisher: CK-12 Foundation. CK-12 is a non-profit organization that creates open-source Flexbooks.
Publisher Contact: Neeru Khosla, Neeru@ck12.org
Elementary Calculus: An Infinitesimal Approach
URL: http://www.math.wisc.edu/~keisler/calc.html
Publisher: H Jerome Keisler. Dr. Keisler is professor emeritus from the University of Wisconsin.
Publisher Contact: J Jerome Keisler, keisler@math.wisc.edu
Trigonometry
CK-12 Trigonometry
URL: http://cafreetextbooks.ck12.org/math/CK12_Trigonometry.pdf
Publisher: CK-12 Foundation. CK-12 is a non-profit organization that creates open-source Flexbooks.
Publisher Contact: Neeru Khosla, Neeru@ck12.org
Your comments are always welcome.
Free Digital Textbook Initiative Open Source CLRN
Jun
4
Free Digital Textbook Initiative: Responding to the Chronicle
June 4, 2009 | Tagged CLRN, disruptive innovation, open source, textbook | 1 Comment
The San Francisco Chronicle’s June 3rd article, “Free digital book plan costly, educators say“, is a well intentioned but misguided attempt to think deeply about the Governor’s Free Digital Textbook Initiative. Unfortunately, the article’s author fails to consider a variety of factors: What is the current state of textbook publishing?; What are the factors that are bringing digital textbooks, particularly open source books, to the forefront?; What are the benefits and concerns about using digital textbooks in schools? and How will a technology-enhanced or delivered textbook benefit teaching and learning?
I’d like to address the author’s primary thesis: “Critics said any savings from free online books would be lost to the technology expenses.”
The Free Digital Textbook Initiative is currently focusing only on those free textbooks that can be downloaded, meaning that school districts have the option to print the textbook in book form or place it on some type of e-reader, which would include laptops, mobile devices, or a commercial e-reader such as the Amazon Kindle. While printing out a digital text may seem to be taking a step backwards, districts would save money by not having to purchase a book from a commercial vendor. A commercial textbook can cost more than $100, but districts could print an 800 page book for less than $35, which despite the Chronicle’s criticism, is a substantial amount in today’s climate. Every dollar saved as a result of this initiative is a dollar better utilized by our schools.
Free Digital Textbook Initiative Open Source CLRN
Jun
1
Free Digital Textbook Initiative: June 1 Update
June 1, 2009 | Tagged CLRN, disruptive innovation, open source, textbook | Leave a Comment
California’s free digital textbook reviews have started quickly out of the gate. Within 24 hours of the press release which called for submissions, four content developers created publisher accounts and a fifth has expressed interest. In addition, the first submission of free digital textbook for review has been completed.
We should note, though, that of the four publishers who created accounts, all of them were known to CLRN and had been contacted by us on May 28th. CLRN has not heard from any content developers who were not on our “radar.” Below is the current list of players:
David Guichard: http://whitman.mathematics.googlepages.com
CLRN is proud that Mr. Guichard is the first publisher to submit a textbook for review. We’ll be reviewing his textbook, Calculus in a few weeks. David is a professor at Whitman College in Washington state.
CK-12: http://www.ck12.org
We’re hoping that CK-12 will be submitting their geometry, biology, and physics textbooks.
Benjamin Crowell: http://www.lightandmatter.com
Mr. Crowell, a physics teacher at Fullerton College in California, has two books we’re interested in seeing: Calculus and Physics.
Hugues Gosse: http://stratus.astr.ucl.ac.be/textbook/index.html
Mr. Gosse, from the Université catholique de Louvain in Belgium, will be submitting his book, “Introduction to Climate Dynamics and Climate Modelling”, which addresses many of the Earth Sciences standards.
Free Digital Textbook Initiative Open Source CLRN
May
28
Free Digital Textbook Initiative
May 28, 2009 | Tagged CLRN, disruptive innovation, open source, textbook | 3 Comments
While I’ve written at length about Clayton Christensen’s Disrupting Class book, another disruptive innovation on the horizon is digital textbooks and a related disruption, open source digital textbooks. On May 6th, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger launched an initiative to make California the first state in the nation to offer schools free, open-source digital textbooks for high school students. The purpose of the Free Digital Textbook Initiative is to provide students, teachers, and parents free digital textbooks for high schools that cover the course content in mathematics and science.
CLRN is proud to be a partner in this innovative initiative.
Today, May 27th, Governor Schwarzenegger, Superintendent O’Connell, and the State Board of Education announced a call for submission of free digital textbooks. Between today and June 15th, CLRN will work with content developers of open source digital textbooks to submit their downloadable textbooks for review. While several wiki-type textbooks are available on the web, which contain interactive links, this first phase of the project will be limited to those resources that can be downloaded. Mathematics subjects that will be reviewed include geometry, algebra II, trigonometry, and calculus. Science textbooks will include physics, chemistry, biology/life sciences, and earth sciences.
Beginning in late June, CLRN’s mathematics review site, coordinated by Jim Shaver, and CLRN’s science review site, coordinated by Cathy Dickerson, will commence reviews, which are expected to be completed by July 23rd.
You might be surprised how many open source textbooks are out there.
CK-12, <http://ck12.org> a California non-profit, specializes in creating high-quality, open source textbooks. They’ve created a new model, the Flexbook, where users can customize the content in their books. The Commonwealth of Virginia recently took advantage of CK-12 by creating the “21st Century Physics” Flexbook to supplement their adopted physics text.
The Free High School Science Textbook project < http://www.fhsst.org/ > is a University of Cape Town, South Africa initiative that has created physics, chemistry, and mathematics books for high school students.
Textbook Revolution < http://www.textbookrevolution.org > is a student-run site dedicated to increasing the use of free educational materials by teachers and professors. The volunteers have assembled links to a variety of textbooks which are organized by subject. Users may also search by keyword or browse by copyright license, including public domain, Creative Commons, and All Rights Reserved.
Merlot, short for Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching, is run by the California State University Chancellor’s Office. Merlot < http://www.merlot.org/ > has compiled a list of more than 200 open source college textbooks, many of which are appropriate for high school classrooms.
These are just a few of the projects that collect links to open source textbooks. I’m certain we’ll discover more as textbook submissions progress.
open source textbook California CLRN Textbook Revolution CK12 MERLOT review
