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 new world of learning, OER content is made free to use or share, and in some cases, to change and share again, made possible through licensing, so that both teachers and learners can share what they know," and that is exactly what we have been trying to do at Global Text.
This semester we have five student interns from the University of Georgia (UGA) working to make textbooks available to students around the world. The most amazing part of this collaboration is the fact that we have students working for the benefit of other students. The Global Text Project office on campus at UGA is a place where students work together to learn more about the process open education. We are in the midst of a learning curve that will create ripples around the world.
The children of the world today are quite literally our future, and as students ourselves it is amazing to think that we are helping pave the way for generations to come. In America we are blessed with the ability to go to school every day - but other people our age are not as fortunate. Every day in the office is one more step to impacting a fellow student's life.
Global Text Project is more than your average internship. Yes, we have set hours to be in the office and are gaining incredible resume boosters, but we are doing so much more. We are creating a link - a bond - between students around the globe that will last years after we have graduated and will enable the children of today to become the leaders of tomorrow.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
United Nations Meeting Addresses Education Goals
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 UN's education goals, but also need to increase aid efforts. Ban encourages all countries to increase their aid for education so that the UN may meet their Millennium Development Goal for universal education, which states that all children everywhere will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling by 2015.
The UNESCO report on Deprivation and Marginalization in Education (DME) focuses on education poverty (or the proportion of those aged 17 to 22 with fewer than 4 years of education) in developing countries. You can also select specific countries, regions, and economies to compare on the chart. It also points out the issues of education disparities in these countries due to wealth, location, ethnic group, and language groups.
For example, in Niger, the education poverty is 76.04% for the whole country. That means that 76.04% of people between 17 and 22 have fewer than 4 years of education. UNESCO divides the data up into the wealthier class and the poorer class. You then find that the wealthier class in Niger only has 33.9% education poverty, whereas the poorer class has 91.7%. In Niger, the poorest 20% have had on average less than 1 year of education. The richest 20% have had on average 5.5 years of education. The disparities here are too striking not to address.
Thinking about Ban's statements and the UNESCO report, it is apparent that universal education is an issue that needs serious attention. Ban stated that education is "a fundamental human right." The Global Text Project wants to pursue that goal. Growing our open education system can help education move from an "accident of circumstance", as Ban put it, to that fundamental right.
More information on the UN meeting can be found here.
What Do Our Followers Think?
Do you think, with the help of organizations like Global Text Project, that the Millennium Development Goal for universal education will be achieved by 2015?
What other countries did you research on the UNESCO report charts?
The UNESCO report on Deprivation and Marginalization in Education (DME) focuses on education poverty (or the proportion of those aged 17 to 22 with fewer than 4 years of education) in developing countries. You can also select specific countries, regions, and economies to compare on the chart. It also points out the issues of education disparities in these countries due to wealth, location, ethnic group, and language groups.
For example, in Niger, the education poverty is 76.04% for the whole country. That means that 76.04% of people between 17 and 22 have fewer than 4 years of education. UNESCO divides the data up into the wealthier class and the poorer class. You then find that the wealthier class in Niger only has 33.9% education poverty, whereas the poorer class has 91.7%. In Niger, the poorest 20% have had on average less than 1 year of education. The richest 20% have had on average 5.5 years of education. The disparities here are too striking not to address.
Thinking about Ban's statements and the UNESCO report, it is apparent that universal education is an issue that needs serious attention. Ban stated that education is "a fundamental human right." The Global Text Project wants to pursue that goal. Growing our open education system can help education move from an "accident of circumstance", as Ban put it, to that fundamental right.
More information on the UN meeting can be found here.
What Do Our Followers Think?
Do you think, with the help of organizations like Global Text Project, that the Millennium Development Goal for universal education will be achieved by 2015?
What other countries did you research on the UNESCO report charts?
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Global Text Project Teams Up With Creative Consultants
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 2009 semester, our Creative Consultants group helped us with our logo redesign, our press releases, and other PR materials. They also organized an internship info session, which resulted in four GTP interns!
This semester, our Creative Consultants team has a social media campaign in store, so be sure to keep up with our Facebook, Twitter, and Blogger! Keep an eye out for videos, too! We look forward to engaging with our supporters through our social networks!
What Do Our Followers Think?
Do any of you rely on social media to keep in touch with other nonprofit organizations? If so, which ones do you think are using social media successfully? We'd love to hear your thoughts!
This semester, our Creative Consultants team has a social media campaign in store, so be sure to keep up with our Facebook, Twitter, and Blogger! Keep an eye out for videos, too! We look forward to engaging with our supporters through our social networks!
What Do Our Followers Think?
Do any of you rely on social media to keep in touch with other nonprofit organizations? If so, which ones do you think are using social media successfully? We'd love to hear your thoughts!
Monday, June 1, 2009
Local Creation of Textbooks
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 before, being used.
The policy of developing textbooks responds mainly to the need of our student for cheap textbooks (they are sold at printing cost). The cost of an university degree is high and very few of the students I've talked to purchase books for the courses the take.
We hope that as part of the Global Text Project we can contribute with some of those books, and also that we can motivate other teachers in LatinAmerica with this effort.
-Andres Sepulveda
Coordinator Spanish Library
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 before, being used.
The policy of developing textbooks responds mainly to the need of our student for cheap textbooks (they are sold at printing cost). The cost of an university degree is high and very few of the students I've talked to purchase books for the courses the take.
We hope that as part of the Global Text Project we can contribute with some of those books, and also that we can motivate other teachers in LatinAmerica with this effort.
-Andres Sepulveda
Coordinator Spanish Library
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Amazon's Announcement of an Updated Kindle
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, they'll be half the price of a new hard-cover, or around $80 or so. Not as attractive as a free textbook downloaded from the Global Text library to a Sony Reader, a pdf on the student's laptop, or a printed copy for around $15 from Lulu Press. Here's the story from today's WSJ:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124162110396691937.html
Sorry, Jeff.
-Don
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124162110396691937.html
Sorry, Jeff.
-Don
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Renting Can Lower Textbook Costs
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. The savings can be high. For example, the third edition of an advanced accounting text, "Fraud Accounting", costs $177.95 new, but can be rented for as little as $52.54 for 55 days, or $41.12 for 90 days from one the sites which employs a guaranteed buy-back model.
The four sites analyzed in the article are:
http://bookrenter.com
http://campusbookrentals.com
http://chegg.com, and
http://textbooks.com
The last one is the site employing a guaranteed buy-back model.
Progress, but still, free is better.
-Don
The four sites analyzed in the article are:
http://bookrenter.com
http://campusbookrentals.com
http://chegg.com, and
http://textbooks.com
The last one is the site employing a guaranteed buy-back model.
Progress, but still, free is better.
-Don
Friday, October 24, 2008
Global Text at the University of Concepcion
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), written by Prof. Juan Inzunza of the Geophysics Deparment. We recently requested the approval of the University to give a Creative Commons licensing to another book from Prof. Alberto Foppiano, who had developed a very useful book of exercises for Physics (electricity and magnetism, Physics 202 level). Hopefully this will become soon the 2nd book in Spanish contributed to the 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), written by Prof. Juan Inzunza of the Geophysics Deparment. We recently requested the approval of the University to give a Creative Commons licensing to another book from Prof. Alberto Foppiano, who had developed a very useful book of exercises for Physics (electricity and magnetism, Physics 202 level). Hopefully this will become soon the 2nd book in Spanish contributed to the community
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