I love the idea of open educational resources, both because I am a lifelong learner and appreciate the ability to get high-quality information, but also because I think that everyone should have access to a high-quality education of they want it.
The BC Open Textbook Project is an interesting idea which, I think, has both a number of positive and negative implications for K-12 education (where I'm particularly interested). I strongly agree with Yuan et all (http://wiki.cetis.ac.uk/images/0/0b/OER_Briefing_Paper.pdf) that information needs to be freely shared with, and for the betterment of, society as a whole. Within the K-12 sphere there are a number of paid resources which primarily dominate the teaching scene that could possibly be replaced with open textbooks. Especially at the higher levels where texts are both expensive and sometimes re-used university books there exists an opportunity to disrupt the overall teaching of content. Just as the open-source software movement caused a bit of a shift in the way that software is produced, so to can an open textbook project.
Some positives? The obvious one is the ability to spend less money as a school because the texts that are used by students are freely available rather than the expensive texts that are used now. These savings could be put back into the school or district in the form of additional programming or resources, possibly resources in order to fully utilize these online books (tablets, laptops, etc). Yuan et all also comment on this important consideration in that openness must also include as few barriers to access as possible, which means students must have the tools they need to access the resources their teacher is utilizing.
Another positive that could come of this project is the ability to have a number of authors, each with different perspectives, contributing content to a single work. These authors may be experts in their field, and having the opportunity to learn directly from them is a valuable resource available to BC (any?!) students.
With respect to negatives in the K-12 field, the largest I see is the varying degree of quality with respect to the textbooks. Teachers utilize textbooks for a number of reasons, but one of the primary ones is to have access to questions from which students can practice. I would argue that fewer teachers rely on the textbook as a teaching resource (ie, the way it explains content) as opposed to having access to a number of thoughtful and useful questions. Teachers are in the business of presenting information in engaging and intriguing ways - no textbook will do this! Because of this, however, the time spent writing useful descriptions for students may be lost because the teacher may feel that he/she is able to better present the information. Furthermore, the explanations, possibly contributed by a number of different people, may not be written in the same style, format or follow the same procedure as a paid-for book. Finally, the lower the grade level, the more of a requirement (I believe) to have a well laid out and properly published book for students. Images, diagrams, colour and activities are all valuable resources that many online textbooks do not include.
The second disadvantage is that with textbooks comes a number of other teacher resources which I think many find very valuable. Rather than simply answers, textbooks are providing test banks, sample projects, activities, materials lists, worksheets, etc, to teachers who can then utilize these resources with their classes. Making these freely available online rather than requiring a school address for shipping may mean that they become useless in a classroom situation, so even if these were created by the Open Textbook Project their utility would be diminished by the ability for students to quickly find answers and full worked solutions.
I think the BC Open Textbook Project is valuable and should be continued, however, I believe that a number of consultations with a variety of educational stakeholders will be required before it can be properly moved into the K-12 fields.
The BC Open Textbook Project is an interesting idea which, I think, has both a number of positive and negative implications for K-12 education (where I'm particularly interested). I strongly agree with Yuan et all (http://wiki.cetis.ac.uk/images/0/0b/OER_Briefing_Paper.pdf) that information needs to be freely shared with, and for the betterment of, society as a whole. Within the K-12 sphere there are a number of paid resources which primarily dominate the teaching scene that could possibly be replaced with open textbooks. Especially at the higher levels where texts are both expensive and sometimes re-used university books there exists an opportunity to disrupt the overall teaching of content. Just as the open-source software movement caused a bit of a shift in the way that software is produced, so to can an open textbook project.
Some positives? The obvious one is the ability to spend less money as a school because the texts that are used by students are freely available rather than the expensive texts that are used now. These savings could be put back into the school or district in the form of additional programming or resources, possibly resources in order to fully utilize these online books (tablets, laptops, etc). Yuan et all also comment on this important consideration in that openness must also include as few barriers to access as possible, which means students must have the tools they need to access the resources their teacher is utilizing.
Another positive that could come of this project is the ability to have a number of authors, each with different perspectives, contributing content to a single work. These authors may be experts in their field, and having the opportunity to learn directly from them is a valuable resource available to BC (any?!) students.
With respect to negatives in the K-12 field, the largest I see is the varying degree of quality with respect to the textbooks. Teachers utilize textbooks for a number of reasons, but one of the primary ones is to have access to questions from which students can practice. I would argue that fewer teachers rely on the textbook as a teaching resource (ie, the way it explains content) as opposed to having access to a number of thoughtful and useful questions. Teachers are in the business of presenting information in engaging and intriguing ways - no textbook will do this! Because of this, however, the time spent writing useful descriptions for students may be lost because the teacher may feel that he/she is able to better present the information. Furthermore, the explanations, possibly contributed by a number of different people, may not be written in the same style, format or follow the same procedure as a paid-for book. Finally, the lower the grade level, the more of a requirement (I believe) to have a well laid out and properly published book for students. Images, diagrams, colour and activities are all valuable resources that many online textbooks do not include.
The second disadvantage is that with textbooks comes a number of other teacher resources which I think many find very valuable. Rather than simply answers, textbooks are providing test banks, sample projects, activities, materials lists, worksheets, etc, to teachers who can then utilize these resources with their classes. Making these freely available online rather than requiring a school address for shipping may mean that they become useless in a classroom situation, so even if these were created by the Open Textbook Project their utility would be diminished by the ability for students to quickly find answers and full worked solutions.
I think the BC Open Textbook Project is valuable and should be continued, however, I believe that a number of consultations with a variety of educational stakeholders will be required before it can be properly moved into the K-12 fields.