tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38712166080619161982011-09-07T06:53:57.873-07:00Ricknoreply@blogger.comBlogger661100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-54256833731346915042011-04-22T09:16:00.000-07:002011-04-22T09:19:14.694-07:00

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }a:link { } By: Ana Kabakova“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” -Carl Sagan Many Open Education Resource (OER) initiatives work with Africa because of its economic, political, and health struggles across the continent. Many in the OER community have pledged to provide the needed resources to help guide Africa into the

Marisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263105912236094424noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-14411386468697901532011-04-15T09:00:00.000-07:002011-04-15T09:09:36.525-07:00

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }a:link { } By: Ana KabakovaThe essential idea of the public domain is that anybody can access its materials. However, the wealth of text in the public domain remains inaccessible to the blind, dyslexic, and learning impaired. Despite the fact that many works in the public domain can be obtained freely on the Internet, there is a conflict of rights between the

Marisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263105912236094424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-72189453522704211832011-04-01T11:12:00.000-07:002011-04-01T11:27:07.876-07:00

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }a:link { } By: Rebecca Arnallp { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }a:link { } What OER resources are available for those wishing to pursue language and higher studies in English? Whether you want to acquire the rudiments of English or embark upon a full-fledged education, the English portion of many OER libraries is sparse. Finding the English course you are interested in

Marisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263105912236094424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-80681768513925297252011-03-23T13:50:00.000-07:002011-04-13T08:07:54.395-07:00

By: Jon Durdenp { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Computers and Internet access are modern conveniences that many of Western nations take for granted, but almost impossible to obtain in developing economies. One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) has a plan to change that. OLPC is an organization dedicated to giving laptops to children in developing nations who might otherwise never experience such technology.p

Marisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263105912236094424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-86466917214046722572011-02-25T13:29:00.000-08:002011-03-23T13:49:40.595-07:00

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }a:link { }By: Rebecca Arnall In any worthwhile enterprise, accountability is crucial. Open Education Resources, or OER, should be no exception. With the growing mass of resources available through OER, it is becoming more important that a standard of reliability be enforced. While most of the Global Text Project's textbooks have been previously published and/or

Marisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263105912236094424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-69654348232073259672011-02-15T13:52:00.000-08:002011-02-15T14:12:06.028-08:00

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }a:link { } By Jon Durden with Marisa Drexelp { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In the US, the government just made a huge commitment to the OER community. The US Department of Labor announced a solicitation for grant applications that will award two billion dollars in US federal funding to OER programs working to improve higher education. The Department of Labor's

Marisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263105912236094424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-61996646270656857472010-12-10T09:59:00.000-08:002010-12-10T10:10:45.441-08:00

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } By Desiree WhiteGlobal Text Project's work is beneficial to those who cannot afford an education and I could tell you all about the pleasant feelings associated with making a difference in someone else's life, but I know you've heard that before. Instead, I want to tell you about what its like to be a twenty-something graduating into a globally depressed economy and

Marisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263105912236094424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-84061011064348621662010-12-09T07:47:00.000-08:002010-12-09T07:54:49.635-08:00

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Do you worry that you wont find enough opportunities to intern as an English major? I certainly did, but luckily I stumbled upon an amazing project, which began my short but important internship as an editorial assistant. I first became involved with the Global Text Project the spring of my sophomore year. Fortunately for me, the Global Text Project was piloting an

Marisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263105912236094424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-61389363878640266532010-12-08T11:07:00.000-08:002010-12-08T11:20:58.583-08:00

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } By Kristyna Mauch Editors improve everything, or so my teacher told me while taking a journalism class at the University of Georgia. It wasn't long until I realized my teacher was right. Many times I have walked by signs and other public advertisements and caught errors. To me, a misspelling here or a misuse of grammar there completely compromises the sign's

Marisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263105912236094424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-4622316405544594722010-12-06T11:25:00.000-08:002010-12-07T10:30:32.987-08:00

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } By Tessa GreenleafThe University of Georgia is all a blur with the onslaught of finals and the conclusion of yet another semester in Athens. Students are gearing up for the holidays as classes are winding down, but here at Global Text Project we are just getting ready to start a new year. Although the rest of campus may be settling in for the winter, Global Text

Marisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263105912236094424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-52957717421805647112010-09-08T05:57:00.000-07:002010-09-08T06:16:01.783-07:00

It goes without saying that undertaking the authoring of a text can be fairly intimidating, but I guess I just said that anyway. As an author, you want to just write about what you are interested in, however you need to worry about formatting, editing, technical content review, image creation, distribution, printing; the list can go on and on and can leave you starting to think twice about the

Marisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263105912236094424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-53357690541696379742010-08-26T11:34:00.000-07:002010-08-26T12:26:32.372-07:00

Associate Editor: Tell us your perspective on creating your textbook, Digital Logic with Laboratory Exercises, with Global Text Project.Dr. Jim Feher: What can I say, I may be biased, but I think the Global Text Project (GTP) is just a fantastic organization. I've always been a huge proponent of open source software and the free exchange of ideas that is made possible by using the Creative

Marisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263105912236094424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-76346509978044158382010-08-19T08:32:00.000-07:002010-08-19T08:44:42.941-07:00

Posted August 13, on his blog (http://www.frankwspencer.com/)"As part of the Global Text Project, Kelvin Seifert and Rosemary Sutton have written Educational Psychology: Second Edition. It is a textbook, covering such topics as student development, diversity, special needs, classroom management, instructional methods, assessment, and teaching thinking skills. It is written for teachers. I'll

Marisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263105912236094424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-72268407304667491132010-06-16T22:49:00.000-07:002010-06-17T00:20:31.671-07:00

Our continuous efforts in Cambodia have resulted in 3 informational seminars in University of Puthisastra and Pannasastra University of Cambodia. The first 2 events were catered for students while the third one was organized especially for professors, lecturers and librarians. 22nd May 2010 marked our first Global Text event ever in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The seminar served as a first step to

natalie.phuongnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-39134493210345334042010-04-22T19:12:00.001-07:002010-04-22T19:24:40.387-07:00

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

natalie.phuongnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-59953057256132239872010-04-22T13:07:00.000-07:002010-04-22T13:18:20.290-07:00

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

Marisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263105912236094424noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-17406175827477143242010-04-16T13:02:00.000-07:002010-04-16T14:28:42.468-07:00

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

Marisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263105912236094424noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-39630491659521020902010-04-06T11:03:00.000-07:002010-04-06T11:07:00.302-07:00

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

Marisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263105912236094424noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-8769619370356730912010-04-03T18:05:00.000-07:002010-04-03T18:34:35.843-07:00

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 (-

Marisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263105912236094424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-42928864888727250322010-03-18T08:38:00.000-07:002010-03-25T23:36:29.644-07:00

In the U.S., textbook companies and universities are taking initiatives to cut their textbook expenses as well as their environmental impact. Statistics from an article from Epoch Times show that 65% of educators plan to phase out traditional textbooks and replace them with electronic textbooks in the very near future. California is the first state to attempt an all-electronic textbook

Cassidyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00459829816180322518noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-51279778620488528012010-03-02T13:17:00.000-08:002010-03-02T14:02:11.603-08:00

All of a sudden it is the beginning of March and we are rapidly nearing our first book deadline. It's amazing to see all the work that the interns have been able to accomplish thus far, especially since we have only been on board the project since the beginning of this year. Big things are beginning to happen in the world of open education.Open Educational Resources says it best: "In a brave

Tessahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01466129936878242950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-56832389576634150672010-02-18T09:30:00.001-08:002010-02-18T09:30:00.142-08:00

At the United Nations meeting on January 19th, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon addressed the issue of unequal global education. Ban pointed out that less than 55% of children in developing countries attend secondary school. Although there has been some progress, the recent UNESCO report indicated that countries not only need to increase efforts to reach out to children who are not achieving the

Cassidyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00459829816180322518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-8279743481746121292010-02-07T12:38:00.000-08:002010-02-16T09:49:00.889-08:00

The Global Text Project has reached out to the Public Relations Student Society of America at the University of Georgia to assist us with our PR campaign. Creative Consultants, a student-run PR firm, has paired us with a group of PR students: Staci Dale, Account Executive; Koby Kelsey, Junior Account Executive; Mamie Cargile; Cassidy Hoffman; Deena Lipson; and Christine Sawyer. During the Fall

Cassidyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00459829816180322518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-36217173067229847692009-06-01T07:09:00.000-07:002009-06-01T07:19:58.092-07:00

We just received an updated list on the use of local textbooks by students of the University of Concepción. It was a good sign that a larger portion of them are classified as books of high demand, being actively used. The University of Concepción has supported the development of textbooks by teachers for a long time. Currently there are over 300 textbooks that have been produced and, as mentioned

Andrés Sepúlvedanoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-13664661849908407682009-05-07T08:18:00.000-07:002009-05-07T08:20:01.726-07:00

Amazon announced its new version of the Kindle today. Bigger screen (9.7 inches). More expensive ($489). Touted to be the salvation of newspapers and textbooks. Maybe newspapers (but doubtful). And textbooks? I don't think so. Amazon wants to sell students textbooks for the Kindle, but has not yet disclosed the pricing. If they are going to be priced in line with current online versions,

Don McCubbreynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-71859497146922760012009-04-23T09:13:00.000-07:002009-04-23T09:15:29.908-07:00

Today's Wall Street Journal had an interesting article by Peter King, entitled "A Textbook Case of Renting Books". I'd heard of similar schemes before, but most were offered by some of the major textbook publishers. This article compares four independent sites where university students can rent textbooks for the amount of time they need them and return them to the company when they're finished.

Don McCubbreynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-48461637986051896382008-10-24T07:51:00.000-07:002008-10-24T07:57:59.807-07:00

We just published a small note on the newspaper of University of Concepción (Chile), PANORAMA, describing the Global Text Project. This is one of the first steps we are taking to give more publicity of our project in the local community.Currently there is one book in the Global Text project, it is "Introducción a la Mecánica y el Calor" (Introduction to Mechanics and Heat, a Physics 101 book),

Andrés Sepúlvedanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-37883372622671419162008-08-29T05:58:00.000-07:002008-09-02T12:53:45.779-07:00

Don hosted Cesar Guerrero, the Sony executive in charge of strategic marketing of Sony’s reader to the education market, at the University of Denver for two days in late May. Cesar held informal get acquainted meetings with faculty from the Daniels College of Business, the Morgridge College of Education, Arts and Humanities, Penrose Library, the Center for Teaching and Learning, and the

Ricknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-26896420362111768772008-08-28T12:28:00.000-07:002008-08-28T12:32:17.221-07:00

Hello, I’m LaKwanzaa Walton. I am 17 years old and currently a senior at Clarke Central High school. I am also a participant of the Young Dawgs program. The Young Dawgs program is part of the school-to-career program. It allows high school juniors and seniors the opportunity to do an internship with UGA in the career field of their choice. My career choice is Marketing/ Business. Since I was

Kwanzaahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09442186363834959973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-36504717338784192462008-08-27T10:30:00.000-07:002008-08-27T10:55:23.182-07:00

School has started here at University of Georgia and the Global Text Project is quickly taking on new aspects and adding new faces. This summer we discussed the idea of starting a student organization that will develop public relations on campus and in the community by providing volunteer support to the project. Since the semester started, that organization has launched and we call it the Global

Marisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263105912236094424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-26801055288830885402008-08-01T07:50:00.000-07:002008-08-01T07:52:28.591-07:00

The Higher Education Act was passed in both houses of the US Congress and is expected to be signed into law today. It includes several provisions related to help reduce the cost of textbooks. They are covered in an analysis on the maketextbooksaffordable site and are similar in many respects to state laws we have discussed in previous posts. Here's a summary from maketextbooksaffordable:"The

Don McCubbreynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-16277460951232784622008-07-15T14:28:00.000-07:002008-07-15T14:29:28.619-07:00

USA Today published an article on Friday, July 11, entitled "Online "open" textbooks save students cash". Written by Svetlana Shkolnikova, it's a pretty good overview of the problem and some of the ways it's being addressed. For example, the article says: "Textbook prices have outpaced inflation 2-to-1 in the past two decades, says a 2005 report by the Government Accountability Office. They

Don McCubbreynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-80989327243111382342008-07-11T10:25:00.000-07:002008-07-11T10:27:17.378-07:00

That's the title of an article in the Wall Street Journal on July 10th. Here's the way the article, by John Hechinger, begins:"College students, already struggling with soaring tuition bills and expenses, are encountering yet another financial hit: Publishers and schools are working together to produce "custom" textbooks that can limit students' use of the money-saving trade in used books. And

Don McCubbreynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-70374772343841424272008-06-18T05:45:00.000-07:002008-06-24T10:48:15.800-07:00

I am so excited to join the Global Text Project and become part of this team!I have been helping with the project for a number of months and applied for a position as soon as one opened up. Since graduating from Elon University with a degree in Professional Writing and Rhetoric in 2004, I have been working in the publishing industry both writing for a magazine and freelancing for myself. However,

Marisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263105912236094424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-77643717136050292322008-06-17T07:33:00.000-07:002008-06-17T07:59:02.123-07:00

PathwaysThere is a Chinese saying, “There are many paths to the top of the mountain, but the view is always the same.” Our view is a library of 1,000 open content, electronic textbooks, and we have identified three paths to this viewing point.Commissioning booksBased upon our experience with the XML text, we started with the idea of seeking volunteers to write chapters to create a text. We called

Ricknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-55395835666877030092008-04-06T03:36:00.000-07:002008-04-06T08:55:33.959-07:00

I returned yesterday after a 12 day trip to Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, and Dubai, and I managed to advance the Global Text Project on several dimensions.EthiopiaI was part of a team that conducted a 2.5 day workshop at the Addis Ababa University to initiate a PhD program in IS. I arrived early on the day before the workshop commenced, and Dr. Salehu Anteneh organized for me to give a lecture to AAU

Ricknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-9678603893904704662008-03-10T17:37:00.000-07:002008-04-10T12:42:33.575-07:00

College students from Ohio University of USA are taking solid actions to contribute to the Global Text Project (GTP). In their Systems Analysis and Design class (MIS320), offered to MIS major students of the College of Business, students are doing two projects that are based on the Global Text Project (GTP):(1) Conducting research on how to implement GTP so that it will be well known to college

wayne Huanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17287545046763182154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-40127728108107334332008-02-04T08:37:00.000-08:002008-02-15T10:43:20.495-08:00

The first 6 weeks of the third year of the project has been very fruitful.Several books have been donated to the project. Thanks to Dr. Paul deLespinasse for Basic Political Concepts, Dr. Stell Kefalas for Global Business Strategy, and Dr. Jurg Nievergelt and Klaus Hinrichs for Algorithms and Data Structures with Applications to Graphics and Geometry. We are in the process of converting these

Ricknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-65828321321266205382007-12-28T11:16:00.000-08:002008-02-04T09:26:53.827-08:00

As we approach the end of 2007, we look back on a year of progress, but still much has to be achieved to make this project successful.We have several books in production stage, which mainly means converting them to the look and feel of the library by applying styles, putting the chapters together as book, and creating a pdf. Expect to see several releases in early 2008. Release 4 of Information

Ricknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-44721706812747153562007-11-11T15:06:00.000-08:002007-11-12T06:07:21.672-08:00

I apologize for the lack of a report in October. We were busy preparing for the Quality Assurance Board meeting and getting the Information Systems in shape. Since we last reported the following has happened.The second meeting of the Quality Assurance Board was held near the Munich Airport in the last week of October. The minutes of the meeting will be published soon.Information Systems has been

Ricknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-68042944498237376552007-10-18T08:53:00.000-07:002007-10-19T13:30:09.025-07:00

According to an article by Erika Gonzalez in this morning's Rocky Mountain news, the concern about textbook inflation has finally reached Colorado. Maybe it's been here for awhile, but under my radar screen. Anyway, more than a thousand students on the Auraria campus (Metro State College, CU-Denver, and Community College of Denver) rallied to protest textbook cost inflation. As you've been

Don McCubbreynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-37169389674797750432007-09-27T06:06:00.000-07:002007-09-27T06:19:27.115-07:00

Eye-opening article in yesterday's Boston Globe re: student concerns over the textbook cost issue at Harvard,with a headline that reads: " In Harvard Square, a war over words". The first paragraph says that "A battle over book prices is raging in Harvard Square between student leaders and the Harvard Coop, the book store created by students 125 years ago to cut down on costs." Take a look.

Don McCubbreynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-6956045139685740982007-09-24T08:53:00.000-07:002007-09-24T08:54:40.024-07:00

The September 24 edition of Inside Higher Education had the following story on two bills wending their way to Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger's desk: "Competing bills to deal with student complaints about textbook prices have arrived on the governor’s desk in California, the Los Angeles Times reported. Both bills would require more disclosure about changes made from one edition to another,

Don McCubbreynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-15019082184816802682007-09-15T12:08:00.000-07:002007-09-15T12:37:03.488-07:00

We have had another month of steady development.Progress continues on the two proof of concept books. Information Systems, while not yet complete, is far enough along that substantial parts of it will soon be in pilot test in classrooms at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia and Atma Jaya Yogyakarta University in Indonesia. Business Fundamentals has four chapters in review and work continues

Ricknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-46712996978857412782007-09-05T06:50:00.000-07:002007-09-05T08:28:50.145-07:00

The AACSB recently released a report on the Impact of Research. Click on the link to download a copy. The contents of the report are summarized nicely in this article from Economist.com, which might be a good place to start. Briefly, the report urges business school faculty to put more emphasis in their research on issues that have practical value in the real world, e.g. for practicing

Don McCubbreynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-15457359623601928472007-08-21T06:43:00.000-07:002007-08-21T06:55:24.094-07:00

IHT Tech News has an article about a new service HP created that could be used as an additional method of distributing Global Text books. It's called Cloudprint, and it's free. Basically, pdf documents are uploaded to an HP server. They can then be downloaded on demand from a cellphone and directed to a printer for printing locally. All users will need to download text is a cellphone, an

Don McCubbreynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-11555577566627153092007-08-13T07:55:00.001-07:002007-08-13T11:46:30.964-07:00

We have moved forward on several fronts during the last few weeks. Important developments include:While teaching in Paris, Rick made contact with UNESCO. July was not a good time for visiting UNESCO because many people were on vacation, but we now have a link, and we can start to build a relationship with UNESCO as a result of the initial meeting.We have now worked for more than a month with

Ricknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-25552427058861989352007-08-06T11:14:00.000-07:002007-08-06T11:27:15.789-07:00

That's the headline on a news story from a posting on today's Philanthropy News Digest. Here's a couple of quotes along with a link to its source, which adds some additional perspectives:"Saying that digital education holds the key to a better future for Mexico's poor, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim has pledged to donate 250,000 low-cost laptops to the country's children by the end of the

Don McCubbreynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-83534887875085227082007-08-06T08:40:00.000-07:002007-08-06T09:23:06.744-07:00

One of the most important aspects of Global Text is the way that it can enhance student engagement in the learning process. Rick saw the value of this in his early experiments with having his students write the XML textbook, one of the inspirations behind Global Text.With our two proof of concept texts, some chapter editors have had their students draft chapter topics, and soliciting

Don McCubbreynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-45731217952881566732007-07-12T15:37:00.000-07:002007-07-13T04:37:23.212-07:00

We decided to prepare a monthly report on the major project initiatives and their status. Part of the reason for doing this is to keep you, the members of the Global Text Community, informed on what’s going on and also to solicit your help and ideas. If you have comments on anything we discuss, please add them to the blog. We’ve turned on the RSS feed so you can now be notified any time the blog

Don McCubbreynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-2056967115565566242007-07-05T08:46:00.000-07:002007-07-07T09:59:27.524-07:00

I live in the foothills west of Denver, Colorado. Not far from where we live is another foothills community, Evergreen. The gross per capita income in Evergreen is $36,654 (remember the gross per capita income in Uganda is $280). The local paper recently had an item describing how a local foundation raised money to buy textbooks and technology for Evergreen High School (EHS) that could not be

Don McCubbreynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-83494686610902266692007-07-02T07:05:00.000-07:002007-07-02T07:29:21.959-07:00

As noted in a previous post, we occasionally get questions on why we're focused on the developing world, and why we're focused on universities instead of K-12. It's not because we think there's not a problem with the cost of textbooks in the US and other developed countries, or with K-12. There is. Our focus is on developing countries because that's where the need is greatest, and on

Don McCubbreynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-47605865961331801362007-06-20T10:07:00.000-07:002007-06-20T10:36:13.034-07:00

A dilemma for the modern world is that the people who have critical knowledge and expertise have many demands on their time, and many of these same people want to help the less fortunate. Endeavors such as the Global Text Project face this fundamental problem.Don and I have presented the idea for the Global Text Project to, I estimate, well over a thousand people, and we always receive a highly

Ricknoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-80309967960717409312007-06-12T15:40:00.000-07:002007-06-12T16:14:37.933-07:00

"Make Textbooks Affordable" is one of several initiatives of The Student Public Interest Research Groups (PIRG). The Make Textbooks Affordable site contains a rich source of news, resources, and even possible solutions to the high cost of textbooks. Dave Rosenfeld is the campaign coordinator. Dave's analysis of a May 2007 report by the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance,

Don McCubbreynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-41652014820426056812007-04-01T07:43:00.000-07:002007-04-01T07:48:45.626-07:00

Concern over the cost of textbooks in the US is heating up and is an issue that is not going to go away. Good evidence of this is the AP story story on AOL News "Tough Problem: High textbook Costs". Here's a couple of quotes from the article, by Brian Bakst: "In Minnesota, legislators are considering more tightly regulating the textbook publishing industry and requiring professors to be more

Don McCubbreynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-56205921029293662062007-02-14T11:57:00.000-08:002007-02-14T12:02:08.105-08:00

As you might expect of the descendants of Scots, we are quite keen to save money. We have moved the Global Text Project to Google's free Blogger. All the old posts have been moved and the original date of the posting noted.-Don and Rick

Ricknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-21504426752789718642007-02-14T11:47:00.001-08:002007-02-14T11:49:06.912-08:00

As readers of this blog well know, making intellectual property freely available over the Internet is what the Global Text Project is all about. When you look at the "open" movement, it has three major aspects: First came open source, (e.g. Linux); next came open content (e.g. Wikipedia) and, finally, open access. Open access, according to Wikipedia (naturally), means "free on-line access

Ricknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-56800683594671052092007-02-14T11:46:00.000-08:002007-02-15T07:00:14.020-08:00

Not surprisingly, the Global Text Project attracts many who are interested in helping their fellow global citizens. On Friday, I had the opportunity to meet Solomon Negash, one of the many fine people involved in the Global Text Project. After some 20 years in industry, Solomon is now an assistant professor in the Computer Science and Information Systems department at Kennesaw State University

Ricknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-4322928649278600472007-02-14T11:45:00.000-08:002007-02-14T11:51:00.309-08:00

Since Rick and I began talking about Global Text, we always found that people loved the idea, but frequently noted that an even greater need was for free textbooks for K-12 students, and not only in developing countries, but also in poor school districts in the US As just one example, when I described Global Text to the Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning on my campus, she commented

Ricknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-74093867296666562422007-02-14T11:43:00.000-08:002007-02-14T11:52:20.751-08:00

Rick received an AISFellows Award at the recent International Conference on Information Systems. "The AIS Fellows Award recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the development and maintenance of the international community of InformationSystems academics". Here is the wording of Rick's award:"Dr. Richard Watson is the J. Rex Fuqua Distinguished Chair for Internet

Ricknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-84136020289095222502007-02-14T11:42:00.000-08:002007-02-14T11:48:45.141-08:00

Are there enough resources to create 1,000 texts?There are about 8 million professors in the world according to the World Bank's statistics. Let's assume each book has 20 chapters. Therefore, we need 20,000 professors to each volunteer to write one chapter. In other words, 1 in every 400 professors needs to write one chapter, or 0.25% of the world's professors must volunteer. Clearly, there

Ricknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-69892475098344565622007-02-14T11:41:00.000-08:002007-02-14T11:52:54.940-08:00

There is almost universal recognition that global warming is occuring, and some organizations are taking steps to create sustainable enterprises as a means of reducing their energy usage and costs. According to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, sustainability is conserving an ecological balance by avoiding depletion of natural resources. Don and I had the good fortune to hear recently Ray

Ricknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-12941577640733253682007-02-14T11:40:00.000-08:002007-02-14T11:53:40.564-08:00

Business benefits society in two ways. Directly, business creates jobs. Indirectly, business develops technology to manage the creation, marketing, and distribution of goods and services. It is the application of the latter that we address in this brief discussion of the Global Text Project, whose vision is to develop 1,000 university texts for students in the developing world.If the Global Text

Ricknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-4328400963548077682007-02-14T11:39:00.000-08:002007-02-14T12:04:30.771-08:00

The Wall Street Journal printed an article entitled "Efforts Mount to Cut Costs of Textbooks" on September 28. If you do a Google search on the headline the first link that comes up is from the WSJ. It takes you to a page that tells you the article is restricted to subscribers. No big deal for me, I'm a subscriber, but it might be a problem for others. On the other hand, if you just scroll

Ricknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-48246402153396890002007-02-14T11:38:00.000-08:002007-02-14T12:05:42.791-08:00

The University of Georgia's Office of Public Affairs sent out a news release on the Global Text project on September 1st. It was picked up by UPI, as well as by several other media outlets around the world. To our great pleasure, most of them are based in developing countries in Africa and Asia. Please log on to the Global Text Website at http://globaltext.org and click on the "In the press"

Ricknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871216608061916198.post-71302634409962164602007-02-14T11:33:00.000-08:002007-02-14T12:05:08.293-08:00

The FT had an interesting article on Alvin Toffler's "big notion of the moment". It's in the August 19/20 edition, by Nathan Gardels, and bears the title "He has seen the future". Of course, we all know that Alvin Toffler and his wife Heidi saw the future quite clearly some 36 years ago when they published Future Shock, followed a few years later by The Third Wave. The thing that struck me

Ricknoreply@blogger.com0