Open digital textbooks in Poland
Poland introduced a pilot programme 'Digital School' aimed at raising ICT skills and for computerization of Polish schools. What is interesting is that the programme encompasses introduction of digital textbooks that will be freely available for pupils (under Creative Commons Attribution or compatible).
This was not very well received by the traditional publishers who feel threatened by the open and free e- textbooks.
What are your views on open access to digital textbooks? Is the open access to knowledge movement change the current publishers' business model ? What is other countries experience with open digital textbooks?
See more at http://creativecommons.pl/2012/04/digital-school-program-with-open-textb...
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Comments
this is a very good
this is a very good initiative. See what crazy things are happening in the USA! Dont know which is wierd - the idea or that it was patented! - Anti-Piracy Patent Stops Students From Sharing Textbooks - http://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-patent-prevents-students-from-sharin...
There was a recent study in
There was a recent study in IRRODL journal www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1137/2130 , which provides an overview of the current open education resources situation and results from an analysis of one OER collection.
Obstruction of inherited
Obstruction of inherited business models is not desirable unless is creates a real innovation surplus. I don't see why these books have to be open access though open access won't do actual harm.
i think you'll find, in
i think you'll find, in Europe, Holland is the leader in this movement to take the old publishing gatekeepers out of the loop. This is primarily because they are smart enough to consider the "whole system", from the content through to all the components of the infrastructure and treat them as parts of a single strategy, rather than individual parts of a whole.
As for patents, especially ones like Prof Vogel has written, rest assured that with the amount of boycotting going on by writers, it's unlikely to get grow legs. http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2012/apr/24/life-elsevier-open-ac...
I keep going back to the history of media and drawing analogies when a new technology kicked the old publishers off their mountains. Some nice stories. e.g. http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/jswift/bl-jswift-battleofb...