[Textbook-l] FW: Utah OpenTexbooks Project (Project Dyson)

FYI. We would love to collaborate w/ wikimedia.org. John Dehlin ------ Forwarded Message Subject: Utah OpenTexbooks Project (Project Dyson) Friends, Family, USU IT Faculty, Grad Students & Alumni, It's only in its infancy (pre-conception, you might even say), but I wanted to let you all know about a project that I've started to think about, under the guidance/tutelage of Dr. Wiley here at USU. It is currently called the "Utah OpenTextbooks Project" (codenamed "Project Dyson" by Dr. Wiley)--and I am considering doing my dissertation around it. The basic gist is as follows: The state of Utah, and other states like it, spend over $20M annually on K-12 textbooks. With that kind of money, and with shrinking educational budgets, a few questions are worth asking: * Are these textbooks worth the $$$? Also, does a brand new U.S. History or Algebra 1 textbook need to be repurchased every few years (at full cost) for whatever few changes may be made? * Do we want a handful of states (New York, California, Florida, Texas) driving the content of textbooks in all the other states (which is basically what happens today, as I¹m told)? * Could better, more innovate textbooks be developed in a community/open/wiki style (see http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page and www.opensourcetext.org for starters), where the COMMUNITY would retain ownership of the content‹or better yet, share w/ other states/countries? * Once a textbook has been written by a community, could digital learning objects be built around the text/course and provided as supplements to the textbook‹helping teachers teach better, and learners learn better (think free multimedia clips for lectures, test banks and innovate lesson plans for teachers, or cool multimedia games/self-direct modules for student homework, etc.) * Finally, if we can create ³local² (statewide) online communities where teachers, students, and subject matter experts congregate to create textbooks, share lesson plans, and basically socialize in the context of an academic course...can we harness the power of the internet in more positive ways...to far more productive ends (think ³replace MTV or Xbox with ŒUtah Math Rocks Internet Plaza¹²? I have attached a very, very rough "Vision Document" that outlines what we have brainstormed, and some early, high-level steps on how we might go about achieving our vision. If you are not comfortable opening attachments from an email (can¹t imagine why you would be :) ), feel free to download the document from: http://f4.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/oL1RQdNHDrnawcLP1c-av2v_Y1LRpZ_PL_4Paj7XwHCX0b_ 09Ppay-jJ0791jStsb2IgwQl1VSP0Rf6L3jpxxg/Utah%20OpenTextbooks%20Project.doc We need lots of input/ideas/feedback, so if any of you are interested in participating in/supporting this project in any way (even as a silent observer), please feel free to reply w/ feedback, or even join our community at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/utahopentextbooks Also, if you know anyone interested in Utah Education, or Open Textbooks, please feel free to forward this message to them. I look forward to collaborating w/ those of you who are interested. It will be a long journey to be sure, but hopefully a worthwhile one. John Dehlin Director of Outreach OSLO Research Group http://oslo.usu.edu/people/jdehlin Utah State University ------ End of Forwarded Message