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Hi Frank,
You bring up some good points. Another respondent suggested that we (or
whoever) should create an open-license lab manual along with an
open-license digital textbook. Part of the materials you have developed
sound perhaps more along the lines of the lab manual. Or as learning
exercises that could go with either the digital textbook or the lab
manual. It is common to hear that these online text and lab and learning
exercise resources should be packaged in the form of modules.
 
Getting students to start with, and in the end go back to, their own
local geological setting would be important pedagogically, I agree. That
would take some thinking about. Yes, it would be good to talk - after
December 1? I seemed to be overbooked until then. Or else this coming
Thursday afternoon or the following Tuesday afternoon.
 
--Ralph
 
 
Ralph Dawes
Earth Sciences
Wenatchee Valley College 
1300 Fifth Street 
Wenatchee, WA 98801 
(509) 682-6754 
[log in to unmask] 
 
 
 
From: Frank Granshaw [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Monday, November 15, 2010 10:09 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Creating a Geology 101 Digital Textbook as an Open
Educational Resource
 
Ralph...
 
I'm definitely interested in talking with you about this project, since
I have several hundred megabytes of on-line information files,
animations, and simulations that I've written over the past 15+ years.
I've also got several projects now in process that might be applicable
to the effort that you are describing.  Regarding your comments about
going through publishing companies, many of them don't like anything
with a regional focus since it limits their marketability.  But as you
are well aware, starting with where students live and moving out from
there can make an earth science course much more relevant and engaging
to students.  It seems like the project that you are proposing could
take this into account.  
 
Perhaps a phone call might be in order to talk more.
 
Cheers
Frank
 
Frank D. Granshaw
Earth Science Instructor
Portland Community College
Sylvania Campus
Portland, OR 
503-977-8236
 
 
 
 
On Nov 15, 2010, at 9:22 AM, Dawes, Ralph 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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