California State Senator Proposes Funding Open-Source Textbooks
I think the whole CONCEPT of a "textbook" needs to change:<p>1. It should be open-source or available on your nearest "App Store" for a REASONABLE price<p>2. It should be interactive.  If I have a history textbook describing a battle, I want to be able to watch the battle unfold (even if it's just a diagram).  If I am reading a chemistry textbook, let me play with the molecule.  When I need to learn about the D3 group in Abstract Algebra, show me a triangle rotating and flipping as the group operations fade in and then drop to the bottom in a chain illustrating a composition.  Let me swipe over to the Cayley table and touch a composition cell and watch the triangle dance.  Whatever.<p>3. Textbooks should share a common ontology that can be extended for each book.  But if I have two textbooks on my device and each has registered its ontology, I should then be able to cross reference concepts from one book to the other, or to appropriate entries in Wikipedia, for example.<p>4. All Chapters, headings, subheadings, and definitions should link to global, school, and class-level discussion forums about the topic where everyone can ask questions and have good answers upvoted in a stackexchange-like manner.  These discussion nodes should be linked to the ontology, rather than the brand of book.  That way ANY textbook with a section on "Limit Points in Rn" or "The Three Branches of US Government" would link to the same discussion node.<p>5. When appropriate, texts should be constantly updated, classes should always use the "latest stable version", and that update should be free after initial purchase (like an App).