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Glenn, OK, will do. Thank you for letting me know of your interest. --Ralph -----Original Message----- From: Glenn Simonelli [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Monday, November 15, 2010 10:24 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Creating a Geology 101 Digital Textbook as an Open Educational Resource I would be interested in contributing. Please keep me in the loop. Regards, Glenn Simonelli On Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 12:22 PM, 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 > [log in to unmask] > > -- Dr. Glenn Simonelli Assistant Professor of Education Satterlee Hall 216 SUNY Potsdam Potsdam, NY 13676 315-267-3345 My home page: http://www2.potsdam.edu/simonega