Distribution Initiative in Cambodia

Greetings from Phnom Penh, Cambodia!

This is Natalie Le, project manager for the first joint effort between AIESEC and Global Text to promote free open textbooks to developing countries. It is quite ironic that everybody on the web knows how to download textbooks for free but the ones who need those most are totally oblivious to the amount of knowledge and resources that they can obtain at no cost. I’m talking, of course, about students in countries like Cambodia where there is such a thirst for knowledge but the local bookstores are not able to deliver.

To bridge this gap, we have decided to launch a pilot initiative to work with universities here in Cambodia to create awareness among professors and students alike. We are working with universities to organize seminars to demonstrate to the school community how they can do research, find materials for courses, and further enrich their learning experiences by accessing Open Educational Resources in general and Global Text in particular. Simultaneously, we work with professors to integrate these free textbooks into the curriculum and work with librarians to link the resources into the school’s web system.

It’s wonderful to have acquired all these free textbooks and we are on our way to better make full use of them by developing an effective distribution system.

Free textbooks can free the world

In today's economy, people must be picky when figuring out where to spend their money. For average American college students, the price of college tuition already causes them to feel the strain. Any extra expenses, like textbooks, are put on the chopping block when students realize the outrageous prices and question if they are really necessary to success. Each semester, students need to decide whether they will sacrifice their bank account or their grade report. Students like me. My name is Kristyna Mauch and I am a senior at the University of Georgia (UGA). Currently, I am an intern at the Global Text Project held by the Terry College of Business at UGA and I am working for a better tomorrow when it comes to college textbooks.

The average textbook can cost anywhere from USD 50 to USD 200. Now multiply that by four to six classes with some classes requiring multiple books depending on your major. It all adds up to be a lot of money. College students that are working to support themselves or depending on federal loans cannot necessarily afford both textbooks and the essentials for life, like food and rent for their apartment. In these circumstances, making an economic decision to not purchase textbooks can negatively affect your grades but at least you will be able to buy enough Ramen noodles to get through the week. It all comes down to students ability to manage money, time and priorities.

Everyday students make these decisions of one or the other, but what if you could have both without sacrificing anything? That is what Global Text Project is working to do by making textbooks available online at no cost. Imagine, instead of standing in long lines to buy expensive, overpriced books, with a click of a button you can upload the necessary texts for your classes for free. There are so many advantages to this situation. With the extra money you saved by not spending it on textbooks, you can buy a month's worth of food. You will undoubtedly do better in your classes if you actually have the required books for the class and you do not have to worry about how your going to pay next month's rent because of purchasing textbooks.

Internationally, a textbook is a lot more outrageously priced when compared to their average daily expenses. According to Anup Shah in a report from globalissues.org, about 80 per cent of humanity live under USD 10 a day. In other words, It would take 10 days of work in order to buy one textbook for USD 100 in parts of the world that live in poverty or have poor economies. I believe this is a causing factor to the 121 million children out of education that Shah reports. By making textbooks free, like Global Text is trying to do, we can work to help educate those children. It may seem like something that would not be a problem in this day and age but according to Shah, a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their name. This is definitely a real problem. Through Global Text Project, people can learn without an expense. This makes life a little bit easier financially and opens up the entire world through education. The benefits of education are unmeasurable but they are undoubtedly positive.

Making textbooks available online for free opens up all sorts of possibilities for university students around the world. This is why we, as interns at Global Text, do what we do. We believe in a cause that will help educate the many without interfering with the way they live. Just like an average American college student will not have to worry about paying for rent because of the cost of textbooks, an international student will not have to worry about paying for food or other vital necessities for life. Having access to free textbooks, gives us a new choice. Instead of choosing between the cost of living and the cost of learning, we get to choose the freedom of education. As interns, we want to give others this choice too.

Educating teachers in underveloped countries

My name is Whitney Wyatt and I am an intern for the Global Text Project. I knew that poverty was linked to the lack of education around the world, but I did not realize this is problem could be prevented. It was not until I began my internship with Global Text that I realized the importance of what we are attempting to accomplish by providing free textbooks for university students.

The need for higher education is a single part in an interrelated cycle within the primary educational system of underdeveloped countries. The more college educated teachers there are in the these countries, the more knowledge can be shared with younger generations. Global Text is trying to help make higher education more accessible and make education for everyone a reality.

Education in underdeveloped countries

Harsh facts:

• 75 million children primary school age are not receiving any education.
• More than half of these children are women.
• More than 70 per cent of these children are in South Asia and Sub-Sahara Africa.
• Enrollment in a university in underdeveloped countries was less than 20 per cent, compared to the 67 per cent of developed countries.
  
• Around USD 167 is spent per child in these struggling countries.

These are very frightening statistics. It is hard for children to receive an education in underdeveloped countries. Those who have receive primary education may not finish their schooling because of more pressing concerns such as acquiring food and helping to support their family. Receiving education is an uncommon luxury and rarely a priority.

Teaching in underdeveloped countries
In underdeveloped counties, the ratio of students to teachers can be as extreme as 100 to 1. Classrooms and schools are full in countries like Ghana, but their resources are sparse. One textbook may need to be shared with 4 or 5 students, and the classrooms may be large, holding 70 or more students at one time. Forty-eight per cent of children in Africa do not have access to textbooks. Families in the Philippines earn an average of USD 1.53 a day; this barely provides an evening meal. The families usually eat rice and casaba roots throughout the year; this leaves them hungry and nutritionally deprived.

Because of such poor conditions, many people are reluctant to go into the teaching profession. Wages are extremely low for such a demanding job. The population of elementary school age children increases every year at an extreme rate. Unfortunately, the growth rate of educators is not as high.

The need for resources

Global Text is working to provide university students with the resources they need to help educate themselves and teach others. Spreading such knowledge is pivotal to promoting schooling and changing attitudes toward education in developing economies. Teachers working in undeveloped economies need the most help engaging their students and exposing them to the importance of learning. These teachers are attempting to change their country's perception of education student by student.

We can all contribute a small part by helping Global Text provide these admirable educators with resources they need. Contributing to the GTP library continuously will not only promote the ability for university students to access material, but it will also help teachers and educators globally because it be one more resource available that can help improve their own work. Through open education, there are countless ways to help fellow educators, we just need to make the choice to help.

BUZZZZ about e-readers

Hi, it's Desiree, GTP Intern.

So, there’s a ton of buzz lately, especially since the introduction of the iPad, to the idea of eReaders. How can you even begin to try to understand the differences? The first eReaders were mostly black and white and solely capable of viewing text. The second generation was also capable of simple graphics and web connectivity. What’s happening now though?

Here’s the major eReaders available on the market and a brief synopsis on each:

1. The iPad – Produced by Apple and release April 3, is unique because it is technically a tablet computer capable of using applications as opposed to an eReader. This could very well be the push towards color images, video, etc in eBooks. It will feature the iBooks application and several large publishers (Penguin, Harper-Collins, Macmillan) have already committed to publishing books for it and several magazines (GQ, Vanity Fair, Wired) are planning to sell subscriptions for the iPad.
2. The Nook – Produced by Barnes and Noble, based on the Android platform and started sales in November 2009. Features a 6 inch display, a microSD slot for extra storage, and a user replaceable battery. Has a “LendMe” feature that allows users to share certain books once with other users for up to two weeks.
3. The Kindle – Produced by Amazon, uses e-ink and has 16 shades of grey scale. Doesn’t connect to computers and uses Amazon’s Whispernet instead for downloading. Estimated 1.5 million devices sold as of December 2009.
4. The Sony Reader – Uses e-ink and had 8 levels of grey scale, and is viewable even in direct sunlight. It requires no power to maintain a static image and can be used in portrait or landscape modes. DRM settings allow books on Sony Readers to be read on up to 6 devices, but not to be shared. As of December 2008, 300,000 units had been sold since the Reader’s launch in 2006.

Of the four, all but the Nook are scheduled to sell more than 2 million units in 2010. Psst, if you happen to want more info and to see comparisons of more than these four, I recommend that you give this page a look: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_e-book_readers

What about formats? One of the biggest problems with eReaders is that you can’t just put any book on any reader and expect it to work. They’re more complicated than different music files and music players in this regard. Here’s the breakdown on which reader supports which type:

• Apple iPad: EPUB, PDF, HTML, DOC (plus iPad Apps, which could include Kindle and Barnes & Noble readers)
• Amazon Kindle: Kindle (AZW, TPZ), TXT, MOBI, PRC and PDF natively; HTML and DOC through conversion
• Barnes & Noble Nook: EPUB, PDB, PDF
• Sony Reader: EPUB, PDF, TXT, RTF; DOC through conversion (Gizmodo.com)

EPUB is the most supported form for ebooks and will very likey be what most of GTP’s text books are styled in once we move to make our books available for eReaders.

EPUB has become the most common format for digital publishing because it is free and openstandard, as well as being based in open specifications. This means that, like OpenOffice, anyone can use it and it can be changed to suit a variety of uses. EPUB is maintained by the International Digital Publishing Forum, which consists of everyone from HarperCollins and McGraw-Hill to Adobe and HP in its membership. EPUB is such a flexible format that it was selected by Google to use for the Google Books project.

It’s XML based, so it’s great for storing information and offers some great benefits against other standards, like PDF, because of reflowable text and a page layout that can adjust to a device’s screen size. EPUB is also capable of using style sheets, embedded fonts, color images, SVG graphics, interactive elements, and video.

Sources:
http://gizmodo.com/5478842/giz-explains-how-youre-gonna-get-screwed-by-ebook-formats
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Reader
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Kindle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nook
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPad

Today at the GTP office...

Hello all. My name is Kala and I am an intern for the Spring 2010 semester with the Global Text Project at the University of Georgia.

***

Ed-it (-verb): to revise or correct, as a manuscript. Ed-i-tor (-noun): a person having managerial and sometimes policy-making responsibility for the editorial part of a publishing firm or of a newspaper, magazine, or other publication. The ed-it-ing proc-ess (-challenge): [see quotes].

Quotes*
1. “This feels like elementary school again, looking through this like, 'How did I miss that?'” - Desiree (intern), looking through “finished” chapters
“I know – welcome to the world of proofreading.” - Marisa (Associate Editor), in response
2. “...and – poof – it becomes an electronic text, but that's not how it happens.” - Marisa

*Collected over a mere ten minutes in the office.

Today in the GTP office – A representative sample of a typical day as a GTP intern:

The day started with uploading the pictures from my chapter in Tourism the International Business. This probably doesn't sound too bad – until you hear the (brief) biography of these pictures:
The pictures were created. The pictures were used. The pictures malfunctioned, causing mass read-errors throughout the textbook. Many an attempt at fixing the problem were made. Finally, one was discovered: only 17 easy steps to a perfect picture! All pictures in entire textbook were replaced. [see quote 2]

Our next task was to review the famous GTP Style Guide as a closing act to finishing up Tourism. This was to refresh our memories as to all of those little things that go into internationally standardizing any GTP chapter. For instance: normally in the US, we would write a doctor's title as “Dr. John,” GTP format would read “Dr John.” Not that we are bad interns, but there were multiple things we all needed reminding of concerning formatting and proofing in regard to GTP. Then again, as Marisa also said: “Copy editing skills will always need improvement.” Looking over the Style Guide was also accompanied by reviews of the Tourism chapters to see what we missed and what we still need work on [see quote 1] – basically proofreading our proofreading, which then gets proofread.

After that, I took care of some non-textbook related business. This included contributing some opinions on formulating a response to an article that ran in The Red & Black (UGA newspaper) about the need for textbooks to go digital (which is obviously a very good opportunity for some publicity). We also contributed to suggestions to further the specifications and clarity of the Style Guide.

Then, finally, I started working on our second book project, Managing for Productivity in the Hospitality Industry. I got through chapter one, remembering to apply all of the formatting and proofreading lessons that I reviewed (I hope), and tomorrow, I will go through chapter two. The first stage is always my favourite part, because there are such tangible results. Once a PDF goes through an OCR conversion, the interns get to work on formatting the text. Re-creating the textbook format using GTP standards is quite satisfying in a nerdy, proofreading-loving way.

The weeks following the initial formatting are a proofreading circus for interns in training. In the first week, each intern takes on an equal number of chapters (usually two or three, depending on the size of the book) and proofreads them on their own. Then the next week, we all, in a sense, switch chapters and re-proofread them. This happens two more times as well, so that we have all essentially looked over all of the chapters [see quote 2] and learned as much as about formatting as humanly possible. These chapters are then complied into a Master Document (which I got to see the workings of today) and looked over by Marisa. After this comes my special job.

My individual project for the GTP internship is publishing the final editions of our textbooks on a self-publishing and print-on-demand website called Lulu.com. As of now we have three books in both colour and black-and-white editions; we even ordered a copy of one. I go through the stages of publishing on Lulu with our final, Master PDF. This includes filling out all the information about the book, uploading the PDF, and creating covers for the books so that anyone can purchase printed copies. There are still some things I need to work out, however, such as how to get our books onto CDs and how to customize our storefront (which is up and running at http://stores.lulu.com/globaltextproject). Overall, I would put it as me being the icing on the textbook cake.

At the end of the, we had our weekly intern meeting at Transmetropolitan (Italian/pizza place downtown). We talked about all the developments that were/are/will be going on, such as ways we can get the word out about GTP, and T-shirts (buy one!), our upcoming projects, and evaluations. We, of course, ate pizza as well, which was a nice ending to a day of interning for The Global Text Project.