Open Textbook Catalog

In an effort to reduce costs for students, the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota has created this catalog of open textbooks to be reviewed by faculty members. Read full press release

Open textbooks are complete textbooks released under a Creative Commons, or similar, license.

Instructors can customize open textbooks to fit their course needs by remixing, editing, and adding their own content. Students can access free digital versions or purchase low-cost print copies of open textbooks.
Textbooks in this Catalog

All textbooks in the catalog are:

Openly Licensed. Acceptable licenses include Creative Commons Attribution, Attribution-Share Alike and Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike or similar. Some books may fall under a No-Derivatives license if the publisher offers an adequate customization program.
Complete. Only complete books, similar to traditional textbooks currently on the market, are included. Materials such as lecture notes, online courses, or drafts, are provided only as supplements to textbooks listed in the catalog.
Suitable for Adoption Outside the Author's Institution.
Available in Print. Because most students still prefer print textbooks to digital, all textbooks include a print option, generally for $40 or less. In some cases, textbooks without a print-on-demand option may be included if they are sufficiently easy and inexpensive to print locally.

Open Textbooks Catalog

Note: If you are a faculty member from any institution, you can support this project and help your peers evaluate the textbooks in this catalog by writing a review of an open textbook in your field.

Only experts like you can determine quality.

Email us at open@umn.edu to get started.

"The rise of the iPad (and, to a lesser degree, other tablets) has led to myriad new kinds of apps that are flourishing. " Check out this video about Moglue:

Video demonstration

See Sam Gliksman's article here.

Don't stop there, either!

5 Apps for Creating Interactive Books on the iPad

"Twitter has come a long way since it first began back in 2006. From such humble roots as "found some fluff in my navel this morning" to "had cornflakes for breakfast, rather soggy", it is now the default source for news networks looking for a quick "public opinion" as well as the place where news actually breaks first before the established networks get a hold of it. Journalists and politicians now also consider it absolutely essential to have Twitter accounts so they can inform everyone of their opinions and what they're up to.

Twitter can be quite addictive but you have to do it the right way to get the most out of it."

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/infographic-twitter-effectively/

How to Twitter Poster:
http://digg.makeuseof.com.s3.amazonaws.com/how-to-twitter.png

The Complete Guide to Twitter:
http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/download-guide-twitter

In this month's episode of Tech Therapy, The Chronicle's monthly technology podcast, Ronald A. Yaros, an assistant professor specializing in mobile journalism at the University of Maryland at College Park, describes an iPhone app he developed for his courses. He also talks about his vision for helping students prepare for a business world in which smartphones will very likely be the norm.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/techtherapy/2011/05/04/episode-83-teaching-students-to-be-smartphone-literate/

Info 3.0 App

I saw my first television commercial featuring a QR code this past week. I don't know how useful it really was, though. In a 15 second commercial, the QR code was only displayed for a few seconds -- not enough time for me to grab my cell phone, start the scanner app, and get it scanned! I suppose I could have paused my HD DVR/Cable Box at that moment and then grabbed my phone and performed the scan, or if I had been viewing a recording of a program, I could have paused and scannned the code. Still though, it doesn't seem real effective or practical to be including QR codes in television advertisements.

I searched the Web for additional thoughts on this subject:

QR Codes in Television Advertising (Technorati)

Shin-B Music Video Featuring QR Codes (Quite interesting, and the codes work!)

Designer QR Code -- this one made TV history:

View the clip and you'll see exactly how quickly the QR Code appears and clears!

We've found Google Calendar to be indispensible for organizing our time and sharing our schedules with friends and coworkers. Now we can let others know about our preferred availability!

That's right! Set up blocks of time you'd like to offer as appointment slots. Simply click anywhere on your calendar and then on "Appointment slots." From there, create a single block of time or automatically split a larger block of time into smaller appointment slots.

Every Google Calendar has its own personal appointments sign up page; you can embed it on your website or give the URL to students and clients. You can find the URL for your appointment page at the top of the set-up page, which you can access via the Edit details link.

When someone visits your sign up page, their calendar is overlaid for convenience and they can sign up directly for any available appointment slot. When they sign up, Google Calendar conveniently creates a new shared event on both of your calendars.

Google Help on Using Appointment Slots

Interesting read today (June 2011, eCampus News): Louisianna State University is being recognized for its commitment to staff IT training and support. "Campus leaders have combined an online knowledge base with face-to-face assistance to help faculty integrate technology into their teaching and research" (June 2011, 8).

Brian Voss, LSU's vice chancellor for information technology, described that LSU has invested in the people necessary to train and provide one-on-one technology support to facilitate the transition to new technologies. They also created the online knowledge base which houses step-by-step instructions for those interested in self-paced, individual learning. Their Faculty Technology Center provides face-to-face assistance to faculty across campus interested in utilizing technology for their teaching and research. This Center provides training as well as opportunities for faculty to demonstrate to other faculty their use of technology.

Says, Brian Voss, "Invest in the people to support the technology used on campus; it is the best way to maximize the investments you make in the technology itself."

Even though the University of Minnesota, Morris hasn't been recognized for its efforts in faculty technology support, I can tell you that we have a very personal, supportive unit on the UMM campus that is committed to providing assistance and training to faculty, staff, and students -- the Instructional and Media Technologies department. This is my unit, and I am proud to say that we focus on the individual and provide customized service and support to all of our clients. We offer campus training to faculty, staff, and students. We also hold events that give faculty and staff the opportunity to share their knowledge with the campus through demonstrations and discussions. We provide online resources, including step-by-step guides, screencast tutorials, and recorded seminars. And, in this fast-paced, ever-changing digital world, we investigate emerging technologies and offer demonstrations and seminars to share our discoveries.

I ask you, is UMM eligible for the "eCampus of the Month" award? I say, "Yes!"

eCampus News Current Issue

Note: Brian Voss will assume his new position as Vice President of Information Technology and CIO at the University of Maryland in August 2011. Thank you to Neil Tickner, Senior Media Relations Associate, University of Maryland, for this notice.

Remember the early 90's and how we were discussing "the new literacy" and how we were going to change education by making technology an integral part of instruction? Don't you think it's interesting that after 25 years, we're still faced with students who need digital literacy skills and instructors who still aren't using technology in their teaching?

At a campus technology seminar last week, one faculty member posed the question, "What can be done to address the problem that we still have students who are coming to our institution without basic technology skills?"

Do we need to look at high school curricula and graduation requirements? Do we need to have a required entrance-level literacy skills course? or entrance exam?