I HATE the price of textbooks!!!

I hate that my students pay huge prices for textbooks. And when I tell them they can shop around and buy used online often they don't get their book until the semester is half-way through. And the online chapters which are convenient still make me and my students prisoners of the publishers. I'm working on divorcing myself from the publishers. I've had it... I'm through!

0 members like this

Comment by Susan Montag on March 25, 2009 at 3:21pm: I teach English comp classes, and traditionally those classes need a "reader," which is an anthologized collection. They are incredibly expensive, and I have found that I use only about 15 to 20 percent of the materials in any given reader, while adding in supplemental material from other sources. This semester, I created my own reader, which the bookstore published for me. Still was expensive for the students, though it did meet my needs better. Next semester, I think I'm going to go for a totally online reader. There is so much material available free on line, as well as from the data bases accessible to the students through the university, why not just use that? I'll probably still stick with the traditional grammar handbook, because I use it extensively, and it is hard to find a collective source online if you don't use the text. But yes, I hear you. I'm tired of the textbook companies too. Plus, carting around all those heavy books will give you a bad back.

Comment by Patricia Perbetsky on March 26, 2009 at 2:25pm: Thanks, Susan. I teach art history and there is almost nothing "scholarly" with images due to copyright issues. I am switching to all online sources. It sounds like everyone is with us. My son at Chico says his teachers are all using novels or other small books as well as readers, like you've compiled. I think the textbook publishers will find their greediness is coming back to bite them.

Comment by Karen Fasimpaur on March 26, 2009 at 2:42pm: These are all good reasons to think about supporting the open textbook movement. For more on open licensed resources, see:
- K12 Open Ed
- Wikibooks
- Open Textbooks
- OER Commons

There are some exciting new projects coming down the pike in this area, but to be successful we need grass roots support, including teachers (and administrators) who are willing to use and support these alternatives to pricey and proprietary textbooks!