The Textbook Revolution
28 Nov 2005, 12:39:13 pm
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The Textbook Revolution is a service linking to online learning materials that are available to educators, for free online use. The texkbook market is, as with most publishing, a rather cutthroat market, although once a foothold is gained, built-in customers are brought in tow. Those customers for decades have complained about having to pay hundreds for a textbook -- only to have it worth nothing at the end of the semester. However, they still do so: the education is too important to simply refuse to spend the money.
The revolution here is not that books are being provided online, but a rebellion against a publisher-controlled textbook market. As with other online revolutions, the change is not in the information itself, but in demanding an alternate medium to enhance the communication. As I mentioned regarding WikiBooks, the online medium offers more to a teacher building their class curriculum than a textbook catalog can. Merely offering texts for free online isn't the revolution: how they are used is the revolution.
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