- Brock Hardwood
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Department of Education hires experts to produce and maintain public domain textbooks - potentially saving billions in education per year
The textbook industry is a $30 billion a year industry.
If the department of education simply hired subject matter experts, over the course of a year, their combined efforts should easily be able to produce quality textbooks. They could also act as managing editors and receive contributions from educators all around the world as a means of updating and improving content quality.
The books would be free to use, download, copy, print, or even edit and modify as each state and school district sees fit. As just one idea of how it could work, They could use low cost tablets that are loaned to students. Another way might be to have the Dept of Education print them up and distribute them at cost to the schools. The possibilities are endless.
If they produced 100 of the most common textbooks used, with 3 subject matter experts per book each earning $100K a year, the cost to produce and maintain up to date, free text books would be only $30 million a year. If we include a pool of graphic artists, photographers, writers, editors and management, we are looking at maybe $40 million per year. Almost 1000 times less than buying commercially produced textbooks..
Any thoughts? Ideas for improvement? Potential pitfalls?
peter lindsay 30+
Eric Hazelle
Brock Hardwood
We just don't need the textbook industry.
LEE DURY 500+
I do believe that the USDOE has issued various publications about identifying and incorporating high quality technology tools and virtual content, several States have followed suit, but I would stop short of suggesting that the USDOE create and distribute the primary resources to the local school districts
Brock Hardwood
Please re-read the original ted-conversation description. This is about producing and maintaining textbooks for the public domain such that local school districts (and anybody, for that matter) can use them, free of charge. The textbook industry can choke on it's past price gouging and dirty practices for all I care, all the while fading into the abyss.
LEE DURY 500+
Reducing cost is admirable and right now a necessity for schools and school districts. All I was saying - leaping forward a bit - was that much of what you suggest is already happening. Material is available to download, edit, etc. Some of this is coming from traditional companies, some from new companies, and some from schools/districts/State DOEs. Students do have increasing access to laptops and tablets, and the result will be a less burdensome drain on finances.
Brock Hardwood
Private industry typically has a profit motive, even when they release 'free' materials. There is nothing wrong with private industry, but that doesn't mean we must buy their products.
James May 50+
Brock Hardwood
In all walks of life, unemployment is a natural consequence of increased efficiency. However, that's not a very good reason to fear an increase in efficiency. Saving $30 billion a year gives us a choice - we can either save that money, spend it in other areas as we choose, or even a combination of the two. Choice is the key. Without increased efficiency, there are no savings, and as such, there would be no alternatives to choose from.
Unemployment is outside of the scope of this discussion, but it is a reasonable question none the less. The answer is simple. We can always choose to spend that money in ways that create the same number of jobs...The beauty of that is, not only do we now have textbooks, we also have some other new service - all for the same price and employment level.
Everett Hill
Advantages would obviously be cost and distribution.
Disadvantages would be getting the tablets into kids hands and holding them accountable for their use.
The greatest challenge, getting the authors to agree on what should be in the textbooks.
Brock Hardwood
Politics is certainly an issue, but not every subject is going to be fought over. In the end, we already deal with those issues under the current model anyway.
Everett Hill
At present, anyone can write a textbook and try to get it published. They may or may not be successful, but no one asks about background, slant, etc. In the new model, it becomes the mantra of our country and the accepted education. That creates a different level of text and conflict and selection of "experts".
Brock Hardwood
I agree that their will be fights, However, not every educator is looking to intentionally slant material. In fact, most aren't interested in that. Some people will definitely fear the "official" text of the US. They will accuse it of all sorts of things, and just because they do, it doesn't make it true.
Disagreements happen in any team project, but teams figure out how to work with each other. The political science textbook I had last semester had 3 authors. I'm sure they had disagreements, but they still managed to produce an excellent textbook.
Brock Hardwood
The 30 billion a year textbook lobby will kill it be for it starts!! lol
Theodore A. Hoppe 200+
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/13/education/mooresville-school-district-a-laptop-success-story.html?pagewanted=all&_moc.semityn.www&_r=0
This district spends $7,500 to education their children. They have arrangement with Apple to lease the computers and the parents pay $50 for the service contract. With tablets and apps available we will not even need laptops.
Brock Hardwood
Theodore A. Hoppe 200+
"In all seriousness. Here's an example from a physics textbook. It applies equally to math. Notice, first of all here, that you have exactly three pieces of information there, each of which will figure into a formula somewhere, eventually, which the student will then compute. I believe in real life. And ask yourself, what problem have you solved, ever, that was worth solving where you knew all of the given information in advance; where you didn't have a surplus of information and you had to filter it out, or you didn't have sufficient information and had to go find some. I'm sure we all agree that no problem worth solving is like that. And the textbook, I think, knows how it's hamstringing students because, watch this, this is the practice problem set. When it comes time to do the actual problem set, we have problems like this right here where we're just swapping out numbers and tweaking the context a little bit. And if the student still doesn't recognize the stamp this was molded from, it helpfully explains to you what sample problem you can return to to find the formula. You could literally, I mean this, pass this particular unit without knowing any physics, just knowing how to decode a textbook. That's a shame."
Robert Winner 50+
In the United States, state and local governments decide most education policy. The role of the federal government is restricted by the Tenth Amendment to that of guarding the right of its citizens to equal access to public institutions and equal opportunity within them.
As is happening in our government .. a means of by passing law has occured. The Dept of Ed has a staff of 5,000 and a budget of 80 billion. It cannot "force" the states to "obey" the demands set forth by the feds ... so it states that if the states do not comply that federal funding will be withheld.
Singapore has taught us that we should embrace "engaged learning" the basis being meaningful, relevant, and useful. We continue to believe that the correct answer is the goal ... true learning would be application of that knowledge. We have mandated, codified, and restricted teachers to the point that they are simply teaching the test.
To envoke a national text and test system would, in my opinion, validate teaching the test for national pride .. but would do little in educating the students.
I have thoughts on doing away with textbook publishers .. but that is another conversation. Out of space.
Bob.
Brock Hardwood
We aren't talking about me, we are talking about an idea. My bio, or who I am is irrelevant.
This isn't significantly different from other 'open textbook' projects, other than it has a paid staff to produce the products. You are right that states don't have to use them, but they would be provided for free and can be modified like anything else in the public domain, which by any understanding of economics, is a powerful incentive.
As for why I think it would reduce cost...I already outlined that in the question header. 40 million compared to 30 billion.. I don't think that is too hard to understand.
The Department of Education is an obvious choice. I am well aware that tea baggers everywhere hate the Federal government, but so what? That isn't the topic of conversation. Besides, they hate the Dept. of education because they still want to teach creationism in school.
"As is happening in our government .. a means of by passing law has occured....so it states that if the states do not comply that federal funding will be withheld."
Congress has the power of the purse....get over it. States do not have to take the money...
What alternative would you propose? You seem to be suggesting that we do nothing.
Robert Winner 50+
Para 5, 6, and 8 are political garbage or assumptions ... Is there a conversation somewhere that Congress does not have the power of the purse???? Or are you making reference to the blackmale that the Dept of Ed uses in withholding funds to get their way which has nothing to do with Congress. I do not get over either Blackmale or violations of the Constitution. Again only a person from another country would endorse that.
I do not .. as you suggest .. "that we do nothing" ... I do suggest that we do the right thing.
I normally do not reply to conversations that do not have posted bios but thought I would give it a try .... I will not do it again ... That is my choice.
Brock Hardwood
Wrong. They have nothing to do with the topic. ANYONE could have come up with the idea, from anywhere and from all walks of life, and it would still be the IDEA that needs to be debated.. The only value a bio has in any debate of substance, is to morons who like to make personal attacks rather than debate the ideas.
Given that you appear to be one of those people that hate the federal government in any capacity, I can honestly say, I don't really care what you think. You are unlikely to contribute anything to the discussion, other than to muddy the waters with mindless drivel over congressional authority that has long since been settled in the supreme court. You are obviously one of those people who claim to understand the constitution, but simply haven't read it in years. I don't need everyone to like my ideas - politics doesn't work that way anyway.
Robert Winner 50+
Brock Hardwood
Robert Winner 50+
Daryl Roche
Brock Hardwood
Daryl Roche
Brock Hardwood
One thought that I have is to think of it in terms of the Wikibooks project with a few changes. Wikibooks is a side project from Wikipedia for creating open text books. It functions in basically the same way as Wikipedia, but it doesn't have a very large following and work doesn't get done in a timely manner. The plus side of it is that it is open to anyone, the downside is the exact same reason.
The changes to the Wikibooks idea that I think would work are to hire salaried subject matter experts who's sole job, 40 hours a week, is to produce and maintain a textbook. They could, and should, take contributions from educators around the world in a way, possibly similar to Wikibooks, but with the hired experts serving as moderators and managing directors.
Would allowing input right from the beginning help make it more acceptable and useable for these school districts? It seems to me, that a math book should be pretty straight forward, and free should be motivating.
Xavier Belvemont 30+
Fritzie Reisner 100+
The way this typically works, I believe, is that a district announces it is looking to adopt , say, new math textbooks for grades 6-12. They announce this along with the timetable for review.
Publishers submit examination copies by a deadline, including the supporting materials that are available to go with the book.
Nowadays, online access to the whole book in addition to however many copies the district buys is the norm.
A committee of lots of people (likely depending on the size of the district), dominated by teachers of the subject, reviews the books and publishers may make presentations about the texts, also providing research evidence of the effectiveness of those curricula. There are also independent sources of review.
The committee takes months to review the materials and rate the texts in reference to the criteria they have decided are important.
The committee then makes a recommendation to the school board, which makes/approves the final selection.
Brock Hardwood
The industry is marginally corrupt, in my opinion. They release new additions, with trivial changes, to thwart the use of used books, encourage teachers to assign homework from their websites to force students to pay for access, and are not forthcoming on the prices they will charge prior to approval, etc...