Posted on 08/01/2010 2:48:35 PM PDT by proxy_user
INFURIATING Scott G. McNealy has never been easier. Just bring up math textbooks.
Mr. McNealy, the fiery co-founder and former chief executive of Sun Microsystems, shuns basic math textbooks as bloated monstrosities: their price keeps rising while the core information inside of them stays the same.
Ten plus 10 has been 20 for a long time, Mr. McNealy says.
Early this year, Oracle, the database software maker, acquired Sun for $7.4 billion, leaving Mr. McNealy without a job. He has since decided to aim his energy and some money at Curriki, an online hub for free textbooks and other course material that he spearheaded six years ago.
We are spending $8 billion to $15 billion per year on textbooks in the United States, Mr. McNealy says. It seems to me we could put that all online for free.
The nonprofit Curriki fits into an ever-expanding list of organizations that seek to bring the blunt force of Internet economics to bear on the education market. Even the traditional textbook publishers agree that the days of tweaking a few pages in a book just to sell a new edition are coming to an end.
Today, we are engaged in a very different dialogue with our customers, says Wendy Colby, a senior vice president of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Our customers are asking us to look at different ways to experiment and to look at different value-based pricing models.
Mr. McNealy had his own encounter with value-based pricing models while running Sun. The company had thrived as a result of its specialized, pricey technology. And then, in what seemed liked a flash, Suns business came undone as a wave of cheaper computers and free, open-source software proved good enough to handle many tasks once done by Sun computers.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Yep. I’m checking it out; thanks!
P.S. I have been using a free math worksheet generator for a long time. It allows us to put in several variables, then we run off as many sheets as we want. Usually make a book of “math drill” worksheets for each child. As this guy said, 10 + 10 = 20 for a long time.
Also, when you do need a “textbook,” shun the official ones. They are way overpriced and are simply part of the professor’s retirement augmentation plan. Look for comprehensive study guides. There are many wonderful ones out there and they are only as much as a regular book. No textbook surcharges and they cover the same info, often better and with less filler.
Thanks~! There is so much waste in the schools. My old school system got a brand new reading series 2 years after spending much money for the first one. The series you discard goes straight to the dump. I asked why doesn’t the system sell the old one at discount to another school or to homeschooling groups. They didn’t want to fool with tax law of a non-profit or some such silly issue. It is so frustrating as a parent and as an employee.
What, using the same delivery medium as Breitbart and Drudge?
Too dangerous. Students might learn to read and think for themselves.
homeschool
My old high school participated a pilot program to provide students with some type of electronic pads that contain all of the students books on one device. I’m not sure of cost savings but it will save a shouder or two from the 50 lb backpack.
Good for McNealy. This is overdue.
I had an econ prof at a JC that did that. His book was so unclear and poorly written that he didn’t even give us a final exam.
Sounds like a description of my typical FR posts.
My Daughter hasn’t had a math textbook since she left private school at the end of 8th grade.
Washington State Public HS.
Do professors of math really write textbooks on basic math?
Interesting. McNealy is a decent dude. Sun is simply awesome as far as hardware goes. This article is bullshit with that last line about cheaper hardware and open-source software though. There is little that can compare to a high end Sun server.
And the "Payola" scandals in the radio industry years ago resulted in laws against this practice.
But perish forbid the same standard should be applied to that bastion of Liberal thought and training...Academia.
ping
We could greatly reduce the cost of education by putting the best lecture series on DVD and thereby eliminating most of the socialist professors.
That said, you are right that my point goes primarily to college and graduate textbooks, where changing a few lines here and there qualifies for a "new edition" that makes all the other almost identical previous editions "obsolete." And I have no problem with professors or anyone else making money off their knowledge.
But I also have no problem with calling B.S. when there is a much cheaper path to the same knowledge.
It was quite clear, I hope, that the point was not whether there exist a professor that wrote such a textbook, but whether that is a phenomenon pronounced enough that you refer to authors as professors..
Exactly why I am here!! Thanks!
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