Re: Open Book

[Camilla R Fox <cfox@mit.edu>]

So people have been talking about trying to fill the text book nitch,
and for the most part neglecting the other text+paper based teaching
materials besides text books that teachers already use.

When I was in grades 1, 2 and 3, my teachers seemed to have an almost
endless supply of work sheets, which were handed out in mimeographed form
to each student, with the expectation that we would color/write/scribble
on them, then take them home or something.  Some of the work sheets
consisted of a seasonally thematic pictures or connect-the-dots, which
would be colored in by us, while others were fill-in-the-blank text,
which we would go through together (often if there was real work,
coloring in the picture accompanying it was the reward for doing the
work), or reading exercises which our parents were expected to have us
read aloud to them for homework.

They were used occupy the class while the teacher dealt with some other
problem, or had a slack half hour, rather than as a replacement for text
books.  I remember them as being relaxing and fun, although too many were
boring and poorly drawn.  I would guess that they came in massive books,
and that the school bought the rights to make copies of them and hand
them out.  There were whole batches that were clearly in the same style,
and had a small copyright notice in the corner.


The reason I'm talking about this format is because it seems well suited
to cooperative free work.  Some of my teachers made their own activity
handouts, which got used throughout the school.  If someone wanted to
make a set of activity sheets, there would be much less to overcome (in
terms of infrastructure) than in making a text book, since photocopying
sheets for students to write on is much more familiar than is photocopying
piles of paper for students to read and not write on.  It's also less of
a commitment for the school, since a teacher can casually download one
or two, and keep them in his/her desk drawer for an emergency, without
going through any budgeting.

The problem essentially is that making work sheets isn't all that
exciting from the stand point of a programmer.  If you're the sort who
really likes web design, it might be enjoyable, but there's far more
bored programmers than bored authors.

I would, however be amused by the task of converting some teacher's
work sheets (drawings and text) into compact postscript/pdf formats
(I'm thinking that I don't want bitmaps fresh from the scanner, but
rather lines in an object representation such as beziers), mixing and
matching various elements, and putting them all up on the web for whoever
wants them.  From a technical standpoint, this isn't difficult - seven
years ago, I used mac software that was good at converting simple line
drawings to beziers, and good layout programs exist.  I don't think it's
appropriate to heavily automate the process - here's how it might be done:

 * contact a few junior school teachers, and ask them if we can have
 copies of their favorite copy-right-free handouts
 * scan them
 * convert them (crudely) to an line drawing format (such as postscript
 lines and beziers)
 * clean up, add text and details, with a drawing/layout program
 * place postscript and pdf copies somewhere accessible

I don't actually know of a unix program that would convert a bitmap to
postscript in any way other than by simply embedding a bitmap in the
postscript document.  However, there was a mac paint+drawing program
I used seven years ago that could effectively convert simple bitmap
line drawings into its bezier representation, as long as the edges were
clearly defined, so it isn't technically difficult.  I digress.

The advantage of my scheme would be:
 * more free stuff and associated warm fuzzies.
 * no more stuff lost to photocopier degradation
 * building contacts with various real live school teachers, without the
 prerequisite of "computer lab".  presumably, we need to prove ourselves
 before we can get vigorous feedback, and present new media formats.

-Camilla