(forwarded message from OLPC-Library mailing list)<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Edward Cherlin</b> <<a href="mailto:echerlin@gmail.com">echerlin@gmail.com</a>><br>
Date: Sat, Apr 12, 2008 at 2:41 PM<br>Subject: Re: [OLPC library] [bytesforall_readers] Re: Many great free textbooks from India (Ketan Tanna)<br>To: <a href="mailto:bytesforall_readers@yahoogroups.com">bytesforall_readers@yahoogroups.com</a><br>
Cc: OLPC Library list <<a href="mailto:library@lists.laptop.org">library@lists.laptop.org</a>>, "<a href="mailto:stacy@librarianchick.com">stacy@librarianchick.com</a>" <<a href="mailto:stacy@librarianchick.com">stacy@librarianchick.com</a>>, OLPC-Open <<a href="mailto:Olpc-open@laptop.org">Olpc-open@laptop.org</a>>, Peter Suber <<a href="mailto:peters@earlham.edu">peters@earlham.edu</a>><br>
<br><br>Copying to OLPC lists, and to Stacy, the Librarian Chick. I hope we<br>
can all get together on this.<br>
<br>
Peter, OLPC has a number of textbook and content projects, and will at<br>
some point start translating them into dozens of languages. Right now<br>
our translators are rather focused on the core software for the XO. We<br>
have training materials for teachers in Spanish and Nepali that needs<br>
to be translated to English, also.<br>
<br>
On Tue, Apr 8, 2008 at 4:19 PM, Subbiah Arunachalam<br>
<<a href="mailto:subbiah.arunachalam@gmail.com">subbiah.arunachalam@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
><br>
> Dear Ketan and Fred:<br>
><br>
> I am forwarding this to Prof. Peter Suber, whose blog "Open Access News" is<br>
> the definitive chronicle of virtually all developments in open access, and<br>
> to Prof. Mangala Sundar of IIT Madras, who has done some outstanding work in<br>
> producing university level open courseware in web, video and Youtube<br>
> formats.<br>
><br>
> On another topic, open access is rather slow to catch up in Asia compared to<br>
> what is happening in Europe and the Americas. Members of this discussion<br>
> list can play a catalytic role and proactively promote open access to<br>
> scientific and scholarly literature, courseware, school textbooks and<br>
> government documents.<br>
><br>
> Incidentally, the NCERT books are written by a panel of outstanding teachers<br>
> (including some award-winning scientists from IISc and IITs).<br>
><br>
> Arun<br>
> [Subbiah Arunachalam]<br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
> On Tue, Apr 8, 2008 at 11:59 PM, Frederick [FN] Noronha * फ्रेडरिक नोरोन्या<br>
> <<a href="mailto:fredericknoronha@gmail.com">fredericknoronha@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
><br>
> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>
> > From: Ketan Tanna <<a href="mailto:ketan.tanna@timesgroup.com">ketan.tanna@timesgroup.com</a>><br>
> > Date: 7 Apr 2008 15:20<br>
> > Subject: for education list-Many great free textbooks from India<br>
> > To: <a href="mailto:fredericknoronha@gmail.com">fredericknoronha@gmail.com</a><br>
> > Cc: <a href="mailto:sugandha.indulkar@timesgroup.com">sugandha.indulkar@timesgroup.com</a><br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> > Many great free textbooks from India<br>
> ><br>
> > April 6th, 2008<br>
> ><br>
> > <a href="http://reganmian.net/blog/2008/04/06/many-great-free-textbooks-from-india/" target="_blank">http://reganmian.net/blog/2008/04/06/many-great-free-textbooks-from-india/</a><br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> > I have written about the plan to buy the copyright for textbooks in<br>
> Indonesia and publish the books online (here, and here). Today I found out,<br>
> through the excellent Indian book blog Scholars Without Borders that the<br>
> Indian National Council on Educational Research and Training (NCERT) offers<br>
> free downloadable versions of many Indian K-12 text books. From this page,<br>
> you can choose which year, and which subject, and receive the title desired.<br>
> The first thing you get is a PDF with the contents, and at first I was very<br>
> disappointed thinking that was the only thing I'd get, about to give up.<br>
> Then I realized that the TOC is hyperlinked to the individual PDFs for the<br>
> different chapters. However, these hyperlinks did not work neither in<br>
> Preview nor in Skim, which I usually use - I had to download Acrobat Reader<br>
> to view them. I hope at some point they will make available direct links to<br>
> the different chapters, or better yet, a zip file containing the whole book,<br>
> for offline reading (also beneficial to those with slow internet).<br>
> ><br>
> > The books themselves seem great. They have text books for the subjects<br>
> English, Hindi and Urdu, and for many subjects they also offer a Hindi or an<br>
> English version, which often seem to be identical. There are all kinds of<br>
> reasons to applaud this. As a student of Hindi, I love reading the readers<br>
> made for the initial grades (with beautiful illustrations!), and as I move<br>
> up, I can use the texts in parallel, reading the Hindi and checking with the<br>
> English that I understood. Just like I suggested that the huge amount of<br>
> OpenCourseWare films of classroom lectures from all around the world,<br>
> especially China and India, might be a gigantic boon to a comparative<br>
> curriculum researcher, these text books would also be great for someone<br>
> studying curriculum and pedagogics in India. Something similar to Bjarne<br>
> Skov's very interesting analysis of elementary school textbooks in Panjab,<br>
> Pakistan (in Norwegian).<br>
> ><br>
> > The thing that would make these books incredibly more useful though, is if<br>
> they were affixed with a Creative Commons license, which enabled other<br>
> people to use the material and creative derivatives. This would enable me to<br>
> use parts of it in my own text books, translate the text, use illustrations<br>
> in Wikipedia articles, etc. There might even be a lot of Indian NGOs that<br>
> wish to use part of the material, but change it in different ways to make it<br>
> more locally appropriate. Licensing it under CC would be great, but it's not<br>
> enough however. The final step is to make available the source files that<br>
> were used in generating the PDFs, whether those are Photoshop Layers, or<br>
> InDesign files. Otherwise it will be very difficult to for example translate<br>
> the text, but keep the nice background illustrations.<br>
> ><br>
> > I hope someone like the great Sarai Foundation or Creative Commons India<br>
> can talk to NCERT and see if this can be pushed through. I don't even know<br>
> if these books were written by NCERT staff, or commissioned from outside<br>
> writers, who owns the copyright etc. Either way, they are beautiful, and I<br>
> recommend you have a look at them. If projects from around the world write<br>
> NCERT and tell them they love the books, but would like them to be freely<br>
> licensed, that might trigger some Indian pride in a positive way.<br>
> ><br>
> > Stian<br>
> ><br>
> > India<br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> > Ketan Tanna<br>
> ><br>
> > Special Correspondent,<br>
> ><br>
> > The Times Of India,<br>
> ><br>
> > Mumbai.<br>
> ><br>
> > Phone: 91-22-22735240<br>
> ><br>
> > Mobile:91-9821034500<br>
> ><br>
> > <a href="mailto:Email%3Aketan.tanna@timesgroup.com">Email:ketan.tanna@timesgroup.com</a><br>
> ><br>
> > or <a href="mailto:ketan@ketan.net">ketan@ketan.net</a><br>
> ><br>
> > -------------------------------------<br>
> ><br>
> > Websites<br>
> ><br>
> > Work: <a href="http://www.thetimesofindia.com" target="_blank">www.thetimesofindia.com</a><br>
> ><br>
> > Personal: <a href="http://www.ketan.net" target="_blank">www.ketan.net</a><br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> > Disclaimer:<br>
> > "The information in this e-mail and any attachments is confidential and<br>
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> of the specific TIMES GROUP company."<br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> > --<br>
> > ----------------------------------------------------------<br>
> > Frederick 'FN' Noronha | Ym/Gmailtalk: fredericknoronha<br>
> > <a href="http://fn.goa-india.org" target="_blank">http://fn.goa-india.org</a> | <a href="mailto:fred@bytesforall.org">fred@bytesforall.org</a><br>
> > Independent Journalist | +91(832)2409490 Cell 9970157402<br>
<br>
--<br>
<font color="#888888">Edward Cherlin<br>
End Poverty at a Profit by teaching children business<br>
<a href="http://www.EarthTreasury.org/" target="_blank">http://www.EarthTreasury.org/</a><br>
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."--Alan Kay<br>
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</font></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Arjun Sarwal<br>Intern, One Laptop per Child<br>Email: <a href="mailto:arjun@laptop.org">arjun@laptop.org</a><br>IRC: arjs on <a href="http://irc.freenode.net">irc.freenode.net</a> in #olpc, #olpc-health, #sugar<br>
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