Rethinking How & Where Digital Knowledge is Stored, Shared,
Tagged and Licensed in the 21st Century: New Role for Librarians?
Cable GreeneLearning Director
“We are in the midst of a technological, economic, and organizational
transformation that allows us to negotiate the terms of freedom, justice, and productivity in the
information society”Yochai Benkler
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lonewolf23/1570632701/
Yes… We Really are Networked… seamless connection of
people, resources & knowledge
digitization of content mobile, personal global platform for
collaboration outsourcing Anyone notice our
global economy?
"According to an IBM study, by 2010, the amount of digital
information in the world will double every 11 hours."
Librarians get public and educational data out into the
open where we can visualize it, manipulate it,
and learn with it.
And we can makeall of our “digital stuff”available toall people…and most of itwill get used...by someone.
“Long Tail” of Publishing
long tail
$
HarryPotter
Hyper-geometricpartial differential
equations
Librarians are information literacy experts who will
help us find the “good stuff.”
And information management gurus – how do we store,
find, search?
In a flat world, the artists, the synthesizers of ideas will rule.
And they will use web 2.0 software standards, and practices to distribute their ideas.
Librarians are, and always have been, synthesizers of
instructional resource solutions.
http://wiki.elearning.ubc.ca/ComingApart
We All Get to Participate
- JSB
Think Big Crazy Ideas…. We could share all of our instructional digital
resources including: courses, textbooks and library resources with the world… and, more important, use global digital materials.
We could use common integrated library systems, support services, and a common set of library databases.
We could design courses that enable and encourage students to contribute, change, remix course content.
“Welcome back to humanity. Some technologies take us away from ourselves and others bring us back. Web 2.0 is helping us rediscover our naturally cooperative, creative, and gregarious nature.
Don't think, therefore, of Web 2.0 as something foreign or hyped-up or all about geeks; Web 2.0 is the rebirth of teaching and learning that fits what we are as a species.”
Why is Web 2.0 Important to Higher Education?
RSS
Because when we cooperate and share, we all win – exponentially.
Reedʼs Law: Networks grow [in value] exponentially by the number of nodes.
It’s a social justice issue: everyone has the right to access global knowledge.
Why is “Open” Important?
Institute for the Future whitepaper: Technologies of Cooperation
Definition of OER
Digitized materials, offered freely and openly for educators, students, to use and re-use for teaching, learning and research.
The Old Economics
Print, warehouse,
and ship a new book for every student
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalmediamuseum/2780164461/
The New Economics
Upload one copy, and everyone uses
it simultaneously
http://cnx.org/content/col10522/latest/
Making copies, storage, distribution
of digital stuff = “Free”
software
textbooks
music
Textbook 2.0modular
authored by community
continuously updated
personalized on assembly
never out-of-print
published on demand
low costex: 600-page textbook for $32, not $132
OpenLearn (UK) - DEMO OCW – MIT (MIT HS)
China Open Resources for Education has translated 109 MIT OCW courses into Simplified Chinese.
Rice Connexions
(a few) Open Content Repositories
and there is this smallcollection of articles:
Why do we Need Open Textbooks?
2005 GAO report: College textbook prices have risen at twice the rate of annual inflation over the last two decades
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05806.pdf
Why do we Need Open Textbooks?
The College Board reported that for the 2007 through 2008 academic years each student spent an estimated $805 to $1,229 on college books and supplies…
http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/about/news_info/trends/trends_pricing_07.pdf
Why do we Need Open Textbooks?
The gross margin on new college textbooks is currently 22.7 percent according to the National Association of College Stores.
Products available in college stores are sold with a margin, as in any retail operation. Margin is the difference between cost and retail price, reflecting work required to bring products to market.
http://www.nacs.org/public/research/margins.asp
May, 2007: Dept of Ed.
http://www.maketextbooksaffordable.org/course_correction.pdf
Community College Consortiumfor Open Educational Resources
Joint effort to develop and use open educational resources and open textbooks
in community college courses
cccoer.wordpress.com
Community CollegeOpen Textbook Project Goal
Identify, organize, and support the production and use of high quality, accessible and culturally relevant Open
Textbooks for community college students
Reduce the cost of
textbooks!
Why so urgent?
Consider One High Enrollment Course: English Composition I 37,226 enrollments / year X $100 textbook = $3.7 Million + (cost to
students) What if we looked at 100, 200,
300 high enrollment courses?
http://rtnl.files.wordpress.com/2007/01/thinker21.jpg
Challenges Faculty and student
resistance to change
Limited availability of high quality and comprehensive learning materials in some disciplines
Inadequate access to high-speed Internet by students
Challenges Compliance with accessibility requirements
Printing and computer lab demands on campus by students
Coordination with campus bookstores
Open Textbook Adoption
Locate open textbooks for consideration
Evaluate each textbook for selection
Customize, remix, and organize selected textbook
Disseminate in print and digital formats
http://emharrington.com/rex/images/adoptadog/Adopt_Me.jpg
Locate Open Textbooksfor Consideration
MERLOT
Connexions
Wikibooks
OER Commons
Global Text Projecthttp://rtnl.files.wordpress.com/2007/01/thinker21.jpg
Evaluate Each Textbook Quality Accessibility Cultural relevance Currency Authority of Source Reading level Depth and scope Quality and
Accuracy Articulation
Customize, Remix, and Organize
Disseminate Open Textbooks Digital formats
Printed format
Campus bookstore
Campus print-shop services
Proprietary services
http://images.lexcycle.com/screenshots/feedbooks_library.jpg
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Librarians can help find and weave open textbooks into
courses … working with faculty (resource based
instructional design, yes?)
13 (b) Faculty and staff members consider the least costly practices in assigning course materials, such as adopting the least expensive edition available, adopting free, open textbooks when available, and working with college librarians to put together collections of free online web and library resources, when educational content is comparable as determined by the faculty
Bookstores Future Role?
49
Bookstores are perfectly positioned to be the College’s clearinghouse for printed open educational resources. print-on-demand open textbooks & OER course
packs Students want printed options (Course Correction
)
Have location and are tightly networked into IT and fiscal campus operations. e.g., students can use fin aid @ bookstores
Are there really Open Educational
Resources (e.g., Open Textbooks) on
the web?50
Librarians are experts in melding open educational resources with traditional
publisher copyrighted resources.
We must get rid of our “not invented here” attitude regarding others’ content move to: "proudly borrowed from there"
Content is not a strategic advantage
Nor can we (or our students) afford it
Hey Higher Ed!
“As uncomfortable a proposition as this new openness may be for some, I believe it is the future of higher education.”
In web 2.0, everything is public & higher education needs to
get used to it.
Future of Openness in Education
David Wiley 2006. Open source, openness, and higher education.
What Happens if weDon’t Change?
Google, Amazo
n, Apple, O
pen Sourc
e,
Open Content, O
pen Textbooks…
Higher EducationFu
nct
ion
al P
oss
ibili
ties
Time
Harder to catch-up …
Or even understand.
55
How is the fiscal healthof your local newspaper?
Choices:
(1) Open up andleverage global input
OR
(2) close up shop
Near Term Opportunity
27 (iv) Sharing library resources including but not limited to: Copyrighted physical and e-books, and consolidated electronic journals and research database licensing and other models;
30 (v) Methods and open licensing options for effectively sharing digital content including but not limited to: Open courseware, open textbooks, open journals, and open learning objects;
http://blog.oer.sbctc.edu http://blog.elearning.sbctc.edu
Dr. Cable [email protected] (360) 704-4334Twitter: cgreen
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