College students in the United States frequently complain about the cost of textbooks. How would you feel, however, if ONE textbook cost 20% of your annual income? That is essentially the problem in developing nations like Uganda.
To combat this problem in the past, some organizations have collected used books and sent them to developing nations. However, Rick Watson of the University of Georgia is proposing another solution: the development of “Wiki” books that would be available online for free.
Watson’s “Global Text Project” eventually will include 1000 titles for courses typically found in the first year or two of college. The project began when Watson couldn’t find an appropriate text to use in an XML course he was teaching. Students in the class were assigned to write chapters, and each succeeding class makes additions and corrections. The model inspired Watson to look at other opportunities for sharing knowledge.
The project also features a blog for updates.
While this model is unlikely to substitute for the text model found in the United States anytime soon, my guess is that innovations in textbook publishing are not too far off in the future.
2 Comments
emhughes · September 30, 2006 at 1:10 pm
What a fantiastic way to educate the world!
Luisa · June 8, 2007 at 9:27 am
It is a good way to help people who have less oportunities. We should stop complaining about book prices and instead learn to appreciate what we have.
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