I've spent a good portion of 2011 working on education initiatives for my former employer, and one of the key challenges worldwide to the spread of formal education to the bottom of the pyramid (though the below example relates to the US) is the price of textbooks.
I think the below platform is one that was incubated by one of our resident anthropologists [1] - Chris, some thoughts? Udhay [1] http://groups.yahoo.com/group/silk-list/message/7134 http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/02/07/rice-university-announces-open-source-textbooks Why Pay for Intro Textbooks? February 7, 2012 - 3:00am By Mitch Smith If ramen noodle sales spike at the start of every semester, here’s one possible reason: textbooks can cost as much as a class itself; materials for an introductory physics course can easily top $300. Cost-conscious students can of course save money with used or online books and recoup some of their cash come buyback time. Still, it’s a steep price for most 18-year-olds. But soon, introductory physics texts will have a new competitor, developed at Rice University. A free online physics book, peer-reviewed and designed to compete with major publishers’ offerings, will debut next month through the non-profit publisher OpenStax College. Using Rice’s Connexions platform, OpenStax will offer free course materials for five common introductory classes. The textbooks are open to classes anywhere and organizers believe the programs could save students $90 million in the next five years if the books capture 10 percent of the national market. OpenStax is funded by grants from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the 20 Million Minds Foundation and the Maxfield Foundation. Traditional publishers are quick to note that the new offerings will face competition. J. Bruce Hildebrand, executive director for higher education of the Association of American Publishers, said any textbook’s use is ultimately determined by its academic value. “Free would appear to be difficult to compete with,” Hildebrand said. “The issue always, however, is the quality of the materials and whether they enable students to learn, pass their course and get their degree. Nothing else really counts.” In the past, open-source materials have failed to gain traction among some professors; their accuracy could be difficult to confirm because they hadn't been peer-reviewed, and supplementary materials were often nonexistent or lacking because they weren't organized for large-scale use. OpenStax believes it addressed those concerns with its new books, subjecting the texts to peer review and partnering with for-profit companies to offer supplementary materials for a cost. <snip, more at URL> -- ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
