Aug
17
FlexBooks Challenge Textbooks, at No Cost to Students or Schools
August 17, 2009 | 3 Comments
Until recently, new ebook initiatives have been focused on popular reading material. Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s eReader are used mainly for reading best sellers and other popular books.
Now, the spotlight is starting to focus on digital textbooks. One reason is an initiative from CK-12 Foundation, a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to jump starting the distribution of textbooks in electronic formats. The organization has commissioned textbooks on a variety of subjects and is now offering them for free download at its website.
The downloadable textbooks are designed in a way that allows teachers to customize the material to match the school’s curriculum — that’s why they’re being called FlexbBooks. To make this possible, the CK-12 Foundation is offering the books without the normal copyright restrictions that limit distribution of traditional textbooks.
The FlexBooks are being offered under a Creative Commons License, which is an alternative to traditional copyright licensing. It allows users to have free use of the material. It does prohibit anyone from re-selling the material without permission. But it also allows those who want to expand on the material to do so without charge. The intention is to allow teachers, students and parents to get more involved in how books are used in schools.
At the CK-12 website, you can download FlexBooks on just a few subjects. Right now, they have works on physics, chemistry, math and engineering. You can also begin using software from the foundation to create your own FlexBooks.
It is not clear if this is truly an altruistic endeavor. Perhaps the founders — who come from the Silicon Valley technology world — are giving away books in order to sell software at a later date. But for now, it is an experiment that could help bring down the cost of textbooks. And we’re going to keep an eye on it.
Try one out. It’s free.
Comments
3 Comments so far
Can this really be that good? Completely free? How can that happen?
Yeah! I mean how could you make something complex like an operating system or an encyclopedia and offer it for free, thats just impossible.
Nan Foo? I think you have a limited perception of the power of collective contribution. In a time when most of the world is starving, not only for food, but education, you decide not to contribute, but rather dismiss a great and welcome achievement.
I applaud those working with and towards FlexBooks. I hope to contribute in my own way soon, even if its a little text that enables someone to read, write, or use a computer.