Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology
Join the Debate!
Textbooks: A Value Proposition
11/13/2007
Editor’s note: Where do you stand on the digital textbook debate? E-mail us at editors@campus-technology.com; select responses will be published in our March 2008 issue.
- Jim Sayer, Wright State University’s (OH) faculty senate president, is a master rhetorician and teacher of that fine art, too. Leading a discussion among the faculty senators on the relentless rise in the cost of text books, compounding at more than 6 percent per annum for the last two decades (per the US Government Accountability Office), he set the stage: “I’ve taught Aristotle for 38 years. Every three years I do so from a different textbook, and it always is more expensive for my students,” and then posed this set of questions: “Why? What’s going on here? Do we have a strategy for getting these costs under control?”
- Although textbook costs are just one contributor to the escalating costs of higher education, “making textbooks affordable” has become a rallying cry for concerned faculty, financial aid officers, and student organizations around the country.
Sayer’s rhetorical questions, the financial aid counselor’s spreadsheets, and the students’ ire are echoed in more formal language in a preliminary bill focused on textbook pricing about to emerge from the Ohio Senate . Modeled on similar legislation drafted in Minnesota, the proposed bill focuses on three broad deliverables: easily navigated textbook websites with clearly priced and unbundled learning assets available for individual purchase; early forewarning of forthcoming new textbook editions that would depress or eliminate the used book market for current versions of texts; and exploration of alternatives to traditional publishing and distribution methods (textbook rental programs, custom publishing, and eTextbooks are offered as three examples). The Minnesota and Ohio explorations follow initiatives in Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New York, Oregon, and Washington, and at last count 25 other states with variants on these three themes or other proposed remedies (
Recommended Reading
- RIAA Outsources Fingering of Students Who Share Music Illegally
The RIAA is outsourcing the hunt for music thieves. Its largest target currently is those who operate from within colleges and universities, a move that has piqued the attention of Educause.
- Microsoft Expands Education Footprint in Asia Pacific Region
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates announced new partnerships to extend accessibility and computer literacy in the Asia Pacific region during a speech in Jakarta at a government leader gathering earlier this week.
- IT Struggling Over Security, Compliance
IT pros are having a hard time balancing security, software patch management and IT auditing with a host of other duties, according to a survey released Monday by Shavlik Technologies.
- Toronto College Upgrades Network with Gigabit Ethernet Wireless Links
Toronto-based George Brown College has gone public about its deployment of six BridgeWave GE60 wireless links to upgrade its campus-wide network.
- Gates Highlights R&D at CES08, Unveils Microsoft Touch Wall
Microsoft's Chairman Bill Gates spent a lot of time Wednesday talking about "empowering the workers" at the Microsoft's 12th annual CEO Summit 2008 in Redmond, WA, where he gave a keynote speech. However, Gates wasn't talking about political revolutions or even pay raises for office workers before the CEO crowd. Instead, he was referring to new software technologies that can better enable collaboration, social networking and decision-making on the job.
- Vista Vulnerability Study Puts Microsoft on Defensive
Microsoft and some independent security researchers had the blogosphere buzzing Wednesday over a series of denunciations after one company claimed that the Vista operating system was more vulnerable to malware and other exploits than previous operating systems.
