My thoughts on the future of textbooks and the delivery of educational content. Discussing ideas surrounding content history, delivery methods, and disintermediation.

1. Building Digital Textbooks
Open Source Content Management
Friday, March 2, 12

2. Today's Agenda
• How The Mighty Have Fallen
• From Inaccessible to Accessible
• The Changing Model of Textbooks
• Open Source Software
• Creative Commons Resources
• iBooks Author
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3. Music Industry
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4. Newspaper Industry
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5. TV
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6. Airlines and Travel
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7. Cable
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8. A Brief History
(Why do we print books?)
• "Keeping" Information
• Printing Information
• Transporting Information
• Value of Information
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9. The Gutenberg Bible
Not Very Portable
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10. The "Pocket" Bible
Significantly More Portable
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12. According to the
College Board
Students Spend an Average of $1,137.00 Per Year
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15. Elementary Textbook
Spending
$400,000,000
Per Year
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16. Why Textbooks
Are Doomed
• Textbooks are finite, linear, and rote.
• It is NOT difficult to create and publish a
book. Lulu, iPhoto and other services.
• Text and images are ridiculously cheap to
transmit digitally.
• iBooks Author
Friday, March 2, 12

17. Textbook "Facts"
• $600.00 per pupil spending on textbooks.
• Outdated once they are printed.
• Not necessarily written by experts and trusted
scholars.
• Most librarians agree that reference books are
most at risk in a digital world.
• 7 year review cycle.
Friday, March 2, 12

18. New Textbook Ideas
• Textbooks are reference manuals.
• Massive "Brain-Trust" in teaching faculty.
• Subscription Model vs. Purchasing.
• Media rich, endless examples, always up to
date.
• Flexbook and Open Textbook Initiative
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19. •
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20. What is a CMS?
• A content management system is software that
keeps track of every piece of content on your
website.
• A major advantage of using a CMS is that it requires
almost no technical skill or knowledge to manage.
• Runs on a SQL database.
• Backend functions on a cPanel, a Unix based web
hosting control panel.
Friday, March 2, 12

21. Joomla!
• Joomla is an award-winning
content management system
(CMS), which enables you to
build Web sites and powerful
online applications.
• Joomla is an open source
solution that is freely available
to everyone.
• Joomla's roots go back to 2000
and has over 200,000
community users and
contributors.
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22. Open Office
• Free MS Office Alternative
• Fully functional to develop
content.
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23. Creative Commons
Resources
• A new "copyleft license"
aimed at flexible handling of
copyright protection for all
kinds of creative work.
• Attribution
• Share Alike
• Non-Commercial
• No Derivative Works
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24. Wiki Commons
• A project of the Wikimedia
Foundation that is an online
repository of free-use images,
sound and other media files.
• http://commons.wikimedia.org/
• Our source for charts and
diagrams.
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25. Moving Forward
• eReaders, Kindles, ipads,
Nooks, Coming Tablets
• Costly $600.00 +
• Textbook reimbursement
issues.
• It’s not Rocket Science. It’s
just High School Chemistry.
• Recent Changes in NYS
Textbook Spending Rules
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26. There’s a New Game
In Town
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27. Discussion
&
Demonstration
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