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| Authored by: PJ on Tuesday, April 16 2013 @ 07:36 PM EDT |
| That's awful. Who is the publisher? [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, April 16 2013 @ 08:44 PM EDT |
(Tkilgore, not logged in)
A couple of responses and additions:
1. As to the cost problem and the way that many (but not all) publishers are
behaving, you are right on the money. I am proud to say that my department's
policy is to avoid such publishers. If we use old-fashioned dead tree texts,
then cost is a factor, too, at book selection time.
2. We also have a policy against using electronic texts or online supplements
which cause lockin. For example, several years ago when we chose a calculus book
and the publisher was offering (to the purchasers) an included CD or the access
to their online help and homework system, one of the things we insisted upon was
a demonstration of all of these features. On one occasion, the publisher's
representatives came to campus, set up their demo, and we started to look at it.
The demo was run in a university computer lab where all the computers ran Win
XP. When we asked if it would run on any other operating system, we were told
that it "requires a browser plugin which is only available for Internet
Explorer." The demonstration was cut quite short, as we explained to them
that they had crossed a red line and they were not going to sell us that book.
Their shock was total, and their efforts to argue with us were totally
unavailing. We just told them to go back and do their homework if they wanted to
sell us a book.
3. We have seriously checked out online resources for a number of our courses.
We do in fact use some online resources, and our students can optionally buy an
electronic copy. The sales reps were questioned closely about such things as
DRM, expiry by date, and such. They may of course have been telling us lies. But
if we catch one of them ...
4. Not everybody likes the tables of integrals in the back of the book. Some of
us only suffer because the books contain those tables, when that is not the way
that we learned calculus and when we have the sincere conviction that to lean on
those tables is a really poor way to learn the subject, and in fact never works.
My own personal, unvarnished opinion is that all those calculus books with the
tables of integrals in the back ought to be put in a big, blazing bonfire and
burned. The students should learn problem-solving methods, not try to memorize
tables. Einstein himself could not have memorized all those tables, so why
should a student try? A more emphatic expression of my opinions would probably
violate the comments policy. Sorry.
5. For some of my own courses, the text comprises a PDF which I wrote myself,
which the students can download from my faculty web page. It comes in two
textually identical formats. One with standard letter-sized pages, and the other
with short pages which fit nicely on a netbook or handheld, in landscape mode.
No book is purchased by anybody. The students tend to like this even though
there is relatively less text and relatively more problems to solve. Of course,
I am doing this in relatively more advanced courses, not calculus.
A couple of other comments I may save for another response. This one is getting
long.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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- Re: I have not tutored, but I teach. - Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, April 16 2013 @ 08:55 PM EDT
- Re: I have not tutored, but I teach. - Authored by: PJ on Tuesday, April 16 2013 @ 10:26 PM EDT
- Re: I have not tutored, but I teach. - Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, April 16 2013 @ 11:05 PM EDT
- Re: I have not tutored, but I teach. - Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, April 17 2013 @ 01:11 AM EDT
- Re: I have not tutored, but I teach. - Authored by: mpellatt on Wednesday, April 17 2013 @ 07:12 AM EDT
- Re: I have not tutored, but I teach. - Authored by: lnuss on Wednesday, April 17 2013 @ 07:47 AM EDT
- Re: I have not tutored, but I teach. - Authored by: JamesK on Wednesday, April 17 2013 @ 11:49 AM EDT
- Amen. - Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, April 17 2013 @ 12:50 PM EDT
- But, is it important to know how to set up the problem, or just that one can ... search - Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, April 17 2013 @ 01:26 PM EDT
- Re: I have not tutored, but I teach. - Authored by: JamesK on Wednesday, April 17 2013 @ 11:43 AM EDT
- Math Skills Always Lag Current Course - Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, April 17 2013 @ 01:02 PM EDT
- Re: I have not tutored, but I teach. - Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, April 17 2013 @ 09:03 AM EDT
- Re: I have not tutored, but I teach. - Authored by: JamesK on Wednesday, April 17 2013 @ 01:37 PM EDT
- Einstein made mistakes too - Authored by: Tolerance on Wednesday, April 17 2013 @ 02:00 AM EDT
- I have not tutored, but I teach. - Authored by: MadTom1999 on Wednesday, April 17 2013 @ 12:05 PM EDT
- Bravo! - Authored by: OpenSourceFTW on Wednesday, April 17 2013 @ 01:36 PM EDT
- You have triggered two other arguments - Authored by: artp on Wednesday, April 17 2013 @ 01:46 PM EDT
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| Authored by: Tolerance on Wednesday, April 17 2013 @ 01:44 AM EDT |
I worked my way through three of the OCW course streams: one
in Python, one in Javascript, and one in PHP. These were all
to a good standard and each stream was constantly improving
as feedback was incorporated.
I already had paper texts for PHP and Javascript. For Python
I relied on some notes from a seminar at my old University.
The on-line texts were not necessary. Where I explored the
Python one I found the biggest advantage was that it was
searchable. It was a handy reference but working through the
exercises systematically practically eliminated the need for
it, combined with feedback from classmates and groups.
---
Grumpy old man[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: OpenSourceFTW on Wednesday, April 17 2013 @ 01:35 PM EDT |
Publishers routinely update mathematics textbooks, even if the theory has not
changed in 50 years. They just change the problems, and force students to buy
new rather than used. They will constantly give free shiny books to the
professors to entice them into changing to the new editions. The smart,
considerate profs will ignore them (or allow students to use any recent edition,
maybe copying the answers from a friend), but many will be lured into it.
And then, at some places, they get the university to offer a custom edition that
changes nothing but the ISBN and the cover. I didn't know this until too late,
or I would have bought the original edition used and saved money.
I've been sticking with renting lately. It's pretty reasonable from Amazon and
even from the bookstore. With the prime program for students, I get the books
free in two days, and free shipping back. Amazon is really nice company by the
way (I accidentally charged the wrong credit card with my prime membership, and,
rather than fix the charge, they just refunded it and gave me a year free).
If I want to keep the book (in my field), I try to buy used or, even better, an
international edition textbook, which often costs 1/3 of the price.
With regard to online courses, it seems like publishers need to get with the
21st century, something they don't seem to feel rushed to do, with their
sickening monopoly over students' wallets.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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