October 2nd, 2009
The Open College Textbook Act of 2009
Next thing you know, I’ll be testifying before powerful subcommittees in Congress. About two months ago, I proposed the The American Textbook Accessibility Act on this blog. Less than two weeks ago, the Senate introduced the The Open College Textbook Act of 2009. I wonder which Senator reads my blog?
OK, delusions of grandeur aside, this bill isn’t quite as sweeping as the idea I proposed. Where I called for Congress to mandate “a single standard for texts that allowed for rich content and that would be forward compatible for many years to come [and] would encourage content development,” the Open College Textbook Act specifies that
…educational materials such as curricula and textbooks created through grants distributed by Federal agencies, including the National Science Foundation, for use in elementary, secondary, or postsecondary courses shall be licensed under an open license.
While this only covers a fairly small subset of the texts created every year, the bill contained other important language:
Making high quality open textbooks freely available to the general public could significantly lower college textbook costs and increase accessibility to such education materials…Open textbooks can improve learning and teaching by creating course materials that are more flexible, adaptable, and accessible through the use of technology.
The open textbook movement is incredibly important to the creation of relevant, rigorous, standards-based educational content. Earlier this week, I downloaded an open physics text to a Sony Reader that is competitive with any of the introductory texts I’ve used or evaluated to teach physics (and, for that matter, to learn physics when I took my first class in high school). It was free and viewable from virtually any device. Imagine not only the cost-savings of this approach to students and schools, but also the way in which it enables technology like e-readers and 1:1 computers to work practically in the classroom.
My proposed bill focused more on the EPUB standard, while this bill focuses more on open licensing. Either way, with the bill passing to committee just this week, we are well on our way towards a new paradigm in content creation and distribution for students.
And, Senators? Keep reading my blog. There’s plenty more nuggets where The American Textbook Accessibility Act came from that you can feel free to use.
Follow Chris Dawson on Twitter! Christopher Dawson is the technology director for the Athol-Royalston School District in northern Massachusetts and a member of the Internet Press Guild. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations, but always keep in mind that the opinions expressed here are his own and not those of his daytime employer, even if he talks incessantly about his day job.
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