College Open Textbooks BLOG

Mid-Pacific ICT Center

The Mid-Pacific Information and Communications Technology (MPICT) conference held on January 6-7 in San Francisco was entitled “Improving ICT Education in Challenging Times” and focused on promising strategies for educating students to find jobs and stay current in the emerging ICT sector. A college faculty friendly conference, it offers free attendance and small stipends for out-of-area attendees. Mobility, smart phones, tablets, wireless, 3G, 4G cellular networks were strongly featured. A panel of IT hiring managers from small to medium business and state government weighed in on the job skills they are looking for in applicants. Soft skills were emphasized – particularly the ability to empathize with customers and solve problems. Although familiarity with web technology and a conceptual view of computer networks was required, specific technical details can be learned on the job if an applicant is a self-learner who can thrive in a team environment.

Cora Landy, development director for the ECDL Foundation, reported on how departments of education and workforce have collaborated in countries as diverse as Egypt, Singapore, and Ireland to bridge the digital divide through use of computer digital literacy standards (IDLC) comparable to reading and math standards. A business college in Ohio and the Pennsylvania State Correctional Institutions are utilizing the ICDL curriculum here in the U.S.

I presented to an amazingly full room for 4:30 p.m. on Share and Share Alike: Find, Author, Share Open Textbooks A quick survey of participants indicated that most were faculty looking for alternatives to traditional and expensive textbooks. Tom Murphy, Computer Science program chair at Contra Costa College reported that he and other CIS instructors were developing an open computer science curriculum for deployment at their college while another professor queried how an instructor could afford to write a textbook for free? This is a good question and one that has many answers. Some write open textbooks through grant funding or on sabbatical leave. Others fit it in around other departmental activities. Many faculty have expressed the desire to develop materials collaboratively with colleagues where each one writes a separate module or chapter and it is then assembled into a collection.

The Friday morning keynote was a good review of emerging broadband technology featuring Gordon Snyder, ICT national director out of Boston. 4G Networks will be coming into their own this year with Verizon rolling out now and AT&T later on this year.

Use of the iPad in Education was another eye opener for participants who were able to play with iPod touches and iPads already loaded with apps including iStarWalk and iCircuits. Apple presenter Charles Du called it “frictionless” learning.

Moodle Accessibility was a good refresher on accessibility law from the iLearn folks at San Francisco State. We looked at how to design courses to support all learners and learning styles through use of a clear and structured layout and providing alternative text for images.

A self-publishing session taught by technology teacher of the year, Mike Qaissauneed, department chair, Brookdale Community College outlined futures textbooks which don’t look much like what students are now using. Highlighting a book/app by David Eageleman: Why the Net Matters: How the Internet Will Save Civilization, he demonstrated how navigation of non-fiction narrative in a non-linear fashion is now possible on a tablet-type interface. Mike also showed the open source tool Calibre converting instructional materials in WORD format to ePub that can then be posted to iBooks or iTunesU for easy distribution to students.

For more details on presentations check out the conference archives. Videotapes of classrooms and presenters will be available in a few weeks at the main ICT center website.