• Economics series by Bucks Institute
• Human Biology (HumBio Series) by Craig Heller and Mary Kiely of Stanford University
• English Composition book by San Jose State under the leadership of Professor Linda Mitchell
• Shelly Goldman's MS Math
• A Basic English Speller
• High Tech High Math problem sets book
• Nanosense from SRI
• Virtual Chemistry

2. Ongoing functional enhancements and future technological directions

Never before has so much money been made available to reenergize the public school educational system; however, Race to the Top (RTTT) is a double-edged sword. On one side, the reality is that billions of dollars can make a difference. The funds could drive much needed innovation to reengage students, particularly in STEM subjects. Yet, on the other side, we need to remain cognizant that this well intentioned effort could yield unforeseen and unintended consequences. The one that worries me most is that all this hoopla may derail educators, schools, and districts from doing what they need to do for current students. Will the present generation have to pay for the good of future generations as some educators claim?

RTTT criteria focus on tangible data to prove success. Adding exemplary teachers, leaders, and turning around low performing schools moves it away from simply quantitative evaluation. Do we really think that this will happen overnight? We have been struggling to improve the current system for a long time. What will ensure that these factors will improve this time? And how will we deal with the confusion that will ensue while we are testing the success of the outcomes?

In reality, given the time frame of the race, without providing a reflective and thoughtful planning process, many educators and administrators feel that they are not ready or qualified to take part in the race. Many states do not feel that they can take part in RTTT as the rules and regulations of their states do not fall within the requirements of RTTT. Many states, such as California, are trying to pass legislation that will allow the state to change so RTTT requirements can be met. Requirements such as allowing student data to be attached to teacher performance will hopefully bring accountability. Some states, the latest one being Nevada, has decided to opt out of the race as they cannot change their regulations. California, for one, with its deficit of billions of dollars cannot afford to pass when handouts are given to them.

The elephant in the room worrying many is what happens once the money dries up? Will the Feds keep supplying the yearly maintenance funds that are needed to the educational agencies? Or better still, since education is the responsibility of the states, can we insist that they now raise their own funds?

There are many reasons not to do the race. Yet can we afford not to take on the challenge to make improvements? The time has come for educators to be willing and daring to take bold steps towards changing the way they educate. It’s worth the risk!

I have been reading as many articles about digital textbooks as I can get my hands on, reading about the perceived pros and cons, the advantages and disadvantages to distributing learning material via the web, or a USB drive, or a DVD. When I came to work at CK-12 I was excited about the idea, and especially about CK-12’s books being free to access and printable at cost. Over the past 18 months I have become a true believer and advocate of digital learning materials, particularly those available under an open license, such as CC-By-SA.

On one hand I can understand the reticence to accept a “free” and “digital” book. For many people just one of these terms automatically connotes poor quality, forget combining the two. But there are countless educators, developers and pioneers dedicated to making high quality free, digital textbooks, including CK-12.

Our July newsletter included an interview with Annamaria Farbizio and Juli Weiss. Annamaria is CK-12’s Math Editor and Leader, and Juli is our Science Editor and Leader. Gil Hoskins, Curriculum Alignment Specialist, and Gary Clarke, Content Manager, round out the CK-12 Content Team with Neeru Khosla as the team leader. This group of people works tirelessly to hire experts in math and science, teachers who hold master’s degrees or PhDs in their fields. You can read about them here.

In a recent Washington Post article,  Jay Diskey, executive director of the Association of American Publishers’ school division said, “Keep in mind that with open-source materials, you have to ask, 'Where are they coming from?' Is it a trusted source? Is it aligned to state standards? Is it based on real research?’ There can be quite a difference of content and accuracy [between free digital textbooks and traditional textbooks]. In many cases, you get what you pay for."

Here are our answers to Mr. Diskey’s questions:

1. Where are they coming from? CK-12’s textbooks come as donations from universities, such as Arizona State University’s high school level engineering textbook, written by professors in their engineering department. They also come from expert volunteers, such as retired NASA engineer Jim Batterson, who together with former teacher and CK-12’s Partner Relations Manager Holland Lincoln, and the State of Virginia, created the 21st Century Physics FlexBook. Virginia commissioned that updated FlexBook to supplement the traditional publishers’ out-of-date texts. FlexBooks are also commissioned by CK-12, created by teachers who have at least five years experience in their subject, many of whom hold master’s degrees and PhDs in their subjects.
2. Is it a trusted source? CK-12’s books are as good as the experts we work with to create them. We consider college professors, teachers, NASA engineers and PhDs to be trusted sources.
3. Is it aligned to state standards? When CLRN evaluated CK-12’s FlexBook for alignment to state standards, none of our books scored below 83%, though most scored closer to 100% for alignment to California’s state standards. In contrast, Pearson’s traditional biology textbook met 46% of California’s biology standards. Source: http://www.clrn.org/FDTI/index.cfm
4. Is it based on real research? In a word, yes. CK-12’s author, editor and reviewer community are highly trained experts in their fields.

CK-12 is here for the good of the students. We are excited about lightening the load they carry to school, allowing their teachers to customize their materials, and making free and digital synonymous with high quality, up-do-date, and customizable in the world of textbooks.

I was asked to be on a panel focusing on "What 21^st Century Education will look like." Surprisingly, not one of us came up with a similar answer, especially since the work in education focus is different.  As expected, my response based on customized and individualize education.  The essence of my point of view is that we must ensure that we must meet the needs of the students starting from where they are rather then where we expect them to be.  The second person on the panel focuse on Emotional Quotient (EQ), Culture Quotient (CQ) and Intelligence Quotient (IQ).  Based on his own eperience in education the next panelist felt that he was taught to be "adaptable to changing situations" and hence we should be teaching for adaptability.  The final panelist, however, based on his research and experience felt that the focus should be on ethical education.

"What is the purpose of education?"

and

"What is the role of schools?"

No doubt that each of my more distinuished fellow panelist brought a very important and much needed angle to education.  However, the  bottom-line is that there are only so many hours in a day.  What do we include and what do we take out?  Are we requiring our schools and teachers to de facto become the "family unit"?  Are we requiring our schools to be everything to everyone?  Can we continue to do so while taking care of very diverse, in many ways, population?

How do we ensure that schools teach to learning the essentials of academics, while making sure that we allow time for complex, individual and ever changing emotional and humane characteristics? Any thoughts?