Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community
Gary Stager mixes a good point in with a bunch of bad ones. The good point is that textbooks are about control - and that's what the textbook industry sells, and it will be very difficult for the school system to give up on this. Yes, the textbook industry is like a Zelig - throw a new technology at it, as Stager says, and they'll turn it into a textbook. Nobody is discounting the size and power of the textbook industry. But it needs to change. Because - contra Stager - it is the textbook publishers, not advocates of free and open content, that promulgate "the flawed premise that education equals access to content." People who actually take the time to read about open content and open educational resources understand that the movement is about much more than merely making content available for free - and it is that, and not some flawed business model, that makes it a treat to textbook publishers (and traditionalists).

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Mar 28, 2024 3:48 p.m.

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