I recently came across an article while roaming blogs about an open source textbook project called CK12.org. With our older, unaligned textbooks that I use in my classroom falling apart I got very excited about this find. My mind started racing about ways I could begin using this resource instead of the outdated beat up books my students tote around. Of course I would need to do a bit of work in auditing these "texts," but I am now eager to get this moving. At first glance these books, called flexbooks, look awesome. They have YouTube videos embedded in the text, outside links, and all of the typical stuff you would expect in a textbook. The content focuses more on mathematical application and problem solving than my current texts, which focus more on knowledge and basic skills. Not only do these flexbooks incorporate multimedia elements, but they do it for free; a big plus in this time of tight budgets that often does not allow for purchasing new texts.
And so I sit here on Sunday wondering: how can I get this going? Can one just pick up and switch books mid-school year? Would the network be more willing to unblock YouTube if it were a part of my Math textbook?
This idea of using a free online texbook gets me very excited, and I can't stop thinking about how to get this ball rolling.
I love open source sites (look at Nixty.com for open source classes) and would also love to incorporate them more in my college classroom. It sounds like the one you are looking at has some great material, especially in Math. Could you slowly incorporate it - maybe using a special project? That might make it more feasible.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for sharing this information. I am also teaching courses that I do not have textbooks for or books that are so old, I think they were printed before I came into the world. I am going to sift through and see what I will be able to use!
ReplyDelete