I'm terribly sorry to interject again as this is a passionate subject for me.
My dream would be to purchase the DI materials from SRA and stick out there for the public to have at. I don't think it is for sale, and if it were, it would be millions, maybe tens or hundreds of millions. The DI materials have the basics of what is needed starting at pre-K or K. Although scripted, it can be adapted for more constructivist methods (cooperative groups, although they are in there already) and multimedia (images and short videos).
The other option is to simply try to re-do the materials with a good copyright attorney and starting from scratch. A simple project seeing as the DI materials were started in 1966 and have been updated throughout on a regular basis. Apparently SRA and McGraw-Hill have some money in their companies (note sarcasm).
-kathy
-----Original Message----- From: Andrew Whitworth [mailto:wknight8111@hotmail.com] Sent: Friday, May 11, 2007 11:22 AM To: textbook-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Textbook-l] [Foundation-l] Rethinking brands
When it comes to writing books for a standardized curriculum, it's more difficult. Wikibooks just doesnt have the man power to write a new book tailor-made for each different jurisdiction. We've been brainstorming ideas to find a way to write a single book, and taking information piece-wise to create a book for a particular curriculum. What we do not have are:
1) Specifications of various curriculums, which we could attempt to satisfy 2) people willing and able to write the necessary material 3) A mechanism to really advertise our books, and compete in the marketplace with established commercial book vendors
This isn't to say that the situation is hopeless, because we are making progress every day. However, there is alot of work left to be done before we can market wikibooks as being a viable alternative to traditional commercial printed textbooks.
With US teachers going on vacation for the summer, perhaps we would be able to attract some of them to help author new material? I don't know how we would attract them, however.
--Andrew Whitworth
From: Sanford Forte siforte@ix.netcom.com Reply-To: Wikimedia textbook discussion textbook-l@lists.wikimedia.org To: Wikimedia textbook discussion textbook-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Textbook-l] [Foundation-l] Rethinking brands Date: Fri, 11 May 2007 11:06:42 -0700
The essential challenge is to get end product into the K-12 education channel, in a way that 1) meshes with the requirements set by state education departments to strictly adhere to curriculum frameworks; 2) devise effective means to inform the established K-12 education community that #1 has been completed (on a subject by subject basis); and, 3) establish a means to distribution of materials *in print* that is easy to access.
Content is decidedly _not_ the problem. The real problems are logistics and effective project management toward a goal of completing the above,
Cheers, Sanford
Sanford Forte, Director California Open Source Texbook Project Palo Alto, CA sforte@opensourcetext.org 650-321-9152 (Office) 650-888-0077 (Mobile)
On May 11, 2007, at 10:28 AM, KH wrote:
I was under the impression that wikibooks would also include textbooks for k-12. Normally, k-3 don't have traditional texts because many are still learning to read. Later, they read to learn. So much of the "textbook" is really worksheets, pictures, and planned lectures and activities. Actually, a better word to use for k-3 is curriculum, not textbooks. But I've read we are not supposed to do curriculum.
Soooo, I'm not sure what wikibooks really is. Here is where I got my info:
http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/003069.shtml
Although dated 8/05, it seems Mr. Wales had a definite vision:
"The second thing that will be free is a complete curriculum (in all languages) from Kindergarten through the University level. There are several projects underway to make this a reality, including our own Wikibooks project, but of course this is a much bigger job than the encyclopedia, and it will take much longer."
Curriculum, by definition, is a package. It can include textbooks but certain goes beyond that to worksheets, teacher planning, activities, etc. I would love to redo the SRA Direct Instruction curriculum in wikibooks so that parents AND teachers have an option for scientificially based curriculum. But according to new definitions, I'm not sure wikibooks is an appropriate place. Under the old definition from the website listed above, it is.
-Kathy
-----Original Message----- Florence Devouard wrote:
I, for one, think it is great to work on better defining the mission of Wikibooks. I have one question though, do you know if the definition worked upon is generally shared with other wikibooks people ? Are they other wikibooks that have worked on such a definition, and where the outcome differs widely from yours ?
ant
At last count 18 people supported it and 7 people objected to it. As others have already said, some disagree on limiting English Wikibooks to just textbooks, how much emphases on textbooks be be given, whether or not it should be a policy or guideline and some have concerns on the clarity of the proposal.
There is quite a difference from English Wikibooks' current version and the German version. Google's German to English translation of the German Wikibooks version: http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F% 2Fde.wikibooks.org%2Fwiki %2FHilfe%3AWas_Wikibooks_ist&langpair=de%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF8
There have been previous proposals on English Wikibooks to redefine the current policy as well, before they were merged together: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php? title=Wikibooks:What_is_Wikibooks/Unstab le&oldid=600961 http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php? title=Wikibooks:What_is_Wikibooks/Unstab le&oldid=665481 http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php? title=Wikibooks:What_is_Wikibooks/Unstab le&oldid=665488
that AFAIK, were abandoned before ever getting to the point of seeking input from the community to accept or reject them.
--darklama
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