Warlich’s recent post is focused on the topic of open curriculum. The post contains a complaint (not from Warlich) contending that:
The textbook industry is almost the enemy of education today…
I am thinking the situation is a little more complicated than this. If the issue is cost and educators feel that these companies are asking too much. Say so. Typically, the process of competition has something to do with this, but my impression is that there are fewer and fewer competitors. By the way, typically the decline in the number of competitors is not a sign that there is a lot of easy money to be made.
Perhaps the complaint is that the books do not contain the right content or take the proper approach. I do think book companies WANT to make money. For them, this seems to translate as find out what content and processes are required in a few large states with global adoptions and generate your book around these priorities. If the objection is to the content, I guess I don’t blame the companies unless one wants to suggest that their motive is not to sell books.I would blame the priorities in the states that influence the book companies. Need to name some names?
Will consortia of teachers author their own content? I don’t know. I am guessing that most will not do it for free and most won’t bother to ask the present folks who tell the book companies what they want in a book. What I would predict would be that some educators will submit some things – perhaps some unique things they are proud of. The question then becomes will these be the things that are necessary to meet the same expectations we know have for the book companies.
I say these things having had the experience of searching for specific things I feel would be useful for my college classes. Typically, I try Merlot. My experience to this point is that the repository approach is no where close to meeting my needs as an instructor. I typically have more luck just using Google to see what I can find. The problem is that I am looking for things I don’t already have and those who offer things for free have little incentive to fill voids that need to be filled.
The instructional design folks probably have a plan, a process, or a model for what needs to be done. Does the open source community have the self discipline to develop content and a curriculum using such rigorous approaches or is the assumption that things will just come together. The Warlich article makes reference to a Legos model. I am saying make certain you buy the set with all the pieces necessary to build your rocket ship.
Not saying that a rigorous approach would not be possible. I think the most likely approach would involve a state effort that fronts the money for planning initiatives and then makes certain that all necessary tasks are addressed. Perhaps such states might attempt to defray costs by agreeing to sell materials to other states not willing to take the plunge. But, that sounds like a publishing company and that is where this all started.