[Athen] CA Digital Textbook Initiative

[Ron Stewart]

Currently almost none of these materials are accessible.  Conversations have
occurred about working with some of these open curriculum groups to develop
production systems that produce fully accessible content but at this point
they are just conversations and are dependent on securing the needed funding
to develop the necessary technology components.

Ron Stewart

-----Original Message-----
From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On
Behalf Of Pat Brogan
Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2009 4:27 PM
To: 'Access Technology Higher Education Network'; 'Alternate Media'
Subject: Re: [Athen] CA Digital Textbook Initiative

Are all of these print only materials? I see that they met state curriculum
standards but was there also a set of accessibility standards? Audio,
Braille, or if richer media, captioned? I assume there are media format
requirements?

Pat Brogan, Ph.D.
Vice President, Sales and Marketing 
Automatic Sync Technologies
877-ast-sync ext. 712
Mobile 408-656-6145
http://www.automaticsync.com
 

-----Original Message-----
From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On
Behalf Of Sean J Keegan
Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2009 10:36 AM
To: Alternate Media; Access Technology Higher Education Network
Subject: [Athen] CA Digital Textbook Initiative

The California Governor's Office released information about the Digital 
Textbook Initiative for K-12 and which companies have met the state 
content standards.

http://gov.ca.gov/press-release/12996/

Interestingly, the non-profit organization CK-12 
(http://about.ck12.org/) had three textbooks that met 100% of the state 
content standards.  CK-12 has an open-content model with the materials 
licensed under a Creative Commons-Share Alike license.  Other open 
content educational systems (i.e., Connexions) also did well in some 
subject areas.

This certainly does address one issue that comes up in discussions that 
"open-source" educational materials are not capable of meeting the 
academic rigor necessary for state or other educational standards.


Take care,
Sean



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