Here is a link to a wonderful article in Palo Alto Online from Nick Veronin of the Mountain View Voice. The article touts the College Open Text Book Collaborative which makes no-to-low cost text books available to college students who often can ill afford the exorbitant costs associated with traditional college text books. The Collaborative was kick started by faculty members Barbara Illowsky and Susan Dean of De Anza who bought back the copyright to the Statistics text they co-authored in order to supply it digitally to their students who otherwise could not swing the cost. How about that? Anyway, it's just another example of how despite all the cutbacks and setbacks our embattled state education system is subjected to, individual action and activism will out.
The Collaborative which began in 2008 now offers 500 open texts at over 200 Community Colleges across the country. Is that inspiring or what? If you have a chance please read the article. We at the Media Center want to give Drs. Illowsky and Dean a warm thank you on behalf of the students in our community. They know you care when you go to such lengths. And thank you Nick for a thoughtful and encouraging article.
No comments:
Post a Comment