LWN: Comments on "SUNY math professor makes the case for free and open educational resources (Opensource.com)"

OT: Feynman proofreading textbooks

flussence — Wed, 07 Mar 2018 21:38:37 +0000

I'll admit I'm pretty desensitised to stories about the American capitalist hellscape at this point. But it's really depressing to learn that the underlying themes of this “Common Core” insanity I've read about date back half a *century*!

SUNY math professor makes the case for free and open educational resources (Opensource.com)

JacobvonChorus — Sun, 04 Mar 2018 03:05:47 +0000

For a course I am currently enrolled in, I not only had to buy the book but I also had to spend $60USD on an online assignment marking system (through the publisher) associated with the book.

OT: Feynman proofreading textbooks

hkario — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 11:37:33 +0000

America in a nutshell: corporate interests first*

It's just sad, really.

* - the list has one position

OT: Feynman proofreading textbooks

sdalley — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 10:46:36 +0000

http://www.textbookleague.org/103feyn.htm

Superb.

Warning: you might have steam coming out of your ears by the time you finish it.

OT: Feynman proofreading textbooks

mirabilos — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 07:21:58 +0000

Ooooh, do you have a link (hyper, dead tree, or other) to that?

How OER are almost never OER

mirabilos — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 07:19:48 +0000

I find the options hilarious. MyOpenMath does not even document which
licence they use (nor does Common Core), at least nowhere visibly on
their respective sites.

Worse, Open Learning Initiative is NC, as is “OER Commons”. This shows
how “open, Creative Commons-licensed content” is actually saying nothing
because it can evidently be applied to absolutely non-free content.

I wonder how this is even at opensource.com… oh wait, .com… haha… got me.

In contrast (before I’m being accused at not doing anything *again* here),
I work with organisations such as Debian and Teckids to produce truly
OSS and Free material (code and non-code) under Free, OSS, DFSG-free,
licences *and* work on enabling others to do so more easily.

tl;dr: If something says OER look at its licence *carefully*. It’s usually non-free anyway.

SUNY math professor makes the case for free and open educational resources (Opensource.com)

pizza — Tue, 27 Feb 2018 20:47:26 +0000

In fairness to Prof. Famous, more specialized courses tend to require more specialized texts, which may have not existed before Prof. Famous wrote one.

However, for more general courses (especially the likes of Mathematics or basic undergraduate stuff) there's no excuse for texts that change rapidly.

(Except of course if Prof. Famous gets to have his own text, why can't Prof. I.P.Freely can't have hers to? Ah, academic politics..)

SUNY math professor makes the case for free and open educational resources (Opensource.com)

mpr22 — Tue, 27 Feb 2018 20:02:16 +0000

Don't see how that's allowed to happen in a world of registered interests.

Because the university's administrators (and donors) don't actually care that Professor Sir I. A. M. Famous is gouging the students' wallets - or at least not enough to deal with the academic-politics fallout that would arise from a crackdown .

SUNY math professor makes the case for free and open educational resources (Opensource.com)

ledow — Tue, 27 Feb 2018 15:13:44 +0000

In my first year of university studying a maths degree, I was forced to buy one calculus book because the assessed exercises were assigned from it, literally to the tune of "Exercise 5.6b from <book name>". Lecturer was a named author of the book. Book cost something like £75. Literally never used it before, during or since (the book was awful). Learned all my calculus from other books that I would have gladly paid more for. There was nothing in the book new, different or even explained in a better way.

Annoyed me then. Annoys me now. Don't see how that's allowed to happen in a world of registered interests.

Especially in, as you point out, a subject that hasn't changed for 100+ years.

I gave it to a poor student when I left university as it was still a required textbook, but they jiggled the editions and changed some of the questions slightly. Utter dirt tactics.

If we have standard curricula, it's about time schools had standardised textbooks too. And nowadays, they should be available as searchable PDF / ePub. No excuses.

SUNY math professor makes the case for free and open educational resources (Opensource.com)

Wol — Tue, 27 Feb 2018 11:53:47 +0000

Just read Dick Feynmann on when he volunteered to proof-read school textbooks :-)

Would that it were a tale from history, but I doubt much has changed ...

Cheers,
Wol

SUNY math professor makes the case for free and open educational resources (Opensource.com)

donbarry — Sun, 25 Feb 2018 00:40:15 +0000

It is frequently something done at the upper levels of college instruction, where there's more latitude given to how an academic wants to structure their class. In lower levels, and particularly "core" courses for other majors, curriculum committees are more bound by accreditation requirements. The farther up the food chain you go, the more money corrodes the relationships in the chain, because it promises a certain control over the product, a control not originating in the academic planning the course.

And so in public schools below college level, even textbooks are chosen at high levels, often requiring state approval. And since multiple versions of textbooks cost more in production, many publishers go for the "lowest common denominator content", the reason that creationist-dominated school boards, as Texas has had at various times, exercise an undue influence on the content of nationwide textbooks.

SUNY math professor makes the case for free and open educational resources (Opensource.com)

Cyberax — Sat, 24 Feb 2018 20:46:33 +0000

A perfect idea that is not too difficult to do and which will never be implemented because of entrenched interests.

I never understood why you need a new math textbook every year.