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From: Paul Grogger <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Mon, November 15, 2010 12:24:37 PM
Subject: Re: Creating a Geology 101 Digital Textbook as an Open Educational Resource

Having retired recently I have the time to energetically work with you and others on such an interesting project. The use of field investigation that are local as well as anywhere else would be especially useful to those who will use the final version of our collaboration.

Paul

On Mon, 15 Nov 2010 09:22:27 -0800
"Dawes, Ralph" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Care to contribute to an open educational resource for
introducing
college students to physical geology? In other words, help
write and
edit a free and open online textbook for Geology 101?
  You have probably heard about open educational resources.
Besides being
easily found on the Web, the key criteria for an open
educational
resource (OER) are that it:
1.    Is free of charge.
2.    Is copyrighted for free use (or free with
attribution), including
use in altered, edited, and excerpted forms.
3.    Requires no login, registration, or user information
to be
accessed.
  If enough of us get together and create an open Geology 101
textbook
online, we can leverage (1) each other's experience in
teaching
introductory geology, (2) each other's content knowledge from
our earth
science research backgrounds, and (3) each other's
pedagogical knowledge
from up-to-date educational research, in order to
group-source, as they
say, a high-quality digital textbook.
  Once it is available to the world at large, we can keep
improving the
digital textbook with future edits and revisions as it gets
perused,
used, and commented upon.
  The next common questions might be: What's in it for me?
Don't people
write textbooks, which can take years of effort, at least
partly for a
profit motive? Yes, there is a lot to be said for traditional
textbooks,
including letting the publishers provide editing,
image-making artwork,
publicity, printing, and shipping; letting the academic
marketplace
filter textbooks by purchasing more of those with the desired
qualities;
and in the end rewarding those who write good-quality
textbooks and get
them published.
  However, in spite of the questions we may raise about the
nebulous-seeming enterprise of open educational resources,
and the
benefits of traditional for-profit textbooks, OER textbooks
are going to
happen. In my view, the best way for an open, online, digital
textbook
for Geology 101 to happen is for those of us who care most
about having
students be introduced to geology properly at the college
level be the
ones who create it.
  That is why I am asking you to join me in this endeavor. At
this point,
it is just an inquiry on my part. If several of you express
interest, we
can go ahead and set up a wiki to work together, agree on the
editing
controls, and go from there until the digital text creation
and editing
site is up, online, and its contents being composed by us,
presumably
sometime during 2011. There are no deadlines.
  By the way, if we spot some grant requests for proposals that
the
Geology 101 OER textbook might be suitable for, we should
consider
applying, as there will be some aspects of the work that a
grant could
help us deal with more efficiently. But regardless of whether
we do this
as a bootstrapped, from-the-grassroots, on-our-own-time side
project, or
whether we find some support along the way, the two key words
are open
and educational. In my view, only those who have a sense of
urgency
about wanting to do this should step forward and get involved
in helping
to make this happen.
  In the meantime, all inquiries and comments are welcome.
Thank you.
  --Ralph
  Ralph Dawes, Ph.D.
Earth Sciences
Wenatchee Valley College
1300 Fifth Street
Wenatchee, WA 98801
(509) 682-6754
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