Comments for brentashley

Comment on One device, one user – for now. by Vijit

Vijit — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 11:36:32 +0000

Agreed. Unless user context changes are seamless and automatic, then I can’t see it working effectively. Wearable devices like Google Glass could make it pretty simple at it can automatically scan the retina and get into context. Getting out of context also has to be seamless. Again with wearable devices, taking the device off effectively neutralizes context. It will be to have traditional tablets go beyond one owner. Heck its hard enough even on a traditional desktop even.

Comment on It’s as bad as that and worse. by Guest

Guest — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 06:16:53 +0000

Your school/professor/whatever is lying if they claim there is no way for a student to have a book with full color pictures. Someone is either greedy or incompetent or just doesn’t care about the students. There are plenty of very good, affordable textbooks on the market.

The argument about three textbooks being worse than one bad textbook – would that be three textbooks that each cost $180 and are deliberately arranged so as not to be available used (or able to be resold later)?

But textbooks are very profitable, and students are a trapped market. (For some reason, we don’t call it gouging when it’s done in the name of Education…)

Comment on RIP @michaelocc by Doc Searls Weblog · Missing Michael

Doc Searls Weblog · Missing Michael — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 02:23:00 +0000

[...] RIP @michaelocc (Brent Ashley) [...]

Comment on App-ocalypse: When? by Rohan Jayasekera

Rohan Jayasekera — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 21:46:45 +0000

I’ve found Cory Doctorow’s argument quite convincing. The nanny/police state wants everything to be controlled by a few gatekeepers who can be dictated to by the government, and the gatekeepers are okay with this since they will then have to face less competition.

On the other side, however, open-source software, and open-source hardware designs with off-the-shelf electronic components, will continue to be available to the outsiders who are willing and able to put the pieces together. Governments will demonize and criminalize the outsiders but that will only get rid of some of them.

The result will be a bifurcated society where computer technology is concerned.

This is also just one instance of a more general trend. According to socionomics (look it up on Wikipedia or at Socionomics.com), when a society has high/increasing social mood, it is increasingly harmonious, and when it has low/declining social mood, it polarizes.

Comment on Can the textbook industry reimagine itself? by Katherine Tyrrell

Katherine Tyrrell — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 13:32:59 +0000

I’ve just been researching something else entirely but happened on a website which highlighted the provisions of the Higher Education Act 2008 in the USA. This REQUIRES all educational establishments to define and COST all text books required for a course whether in print or online so as to allow a student to estimate the real cost of taking a course.

“The act mandates that textbook costs be available as part of any schedule of classes, whether online or in print. The intent of this act is to allow students to shop for the best price on textbooks and thus lower their costs. “
http://www.uwstout.edu/lib/services/irs_heoa.cfm

It seems that excessive prices of textbooks is something that has also been a major issue in the USA and that this has been addressed in part via this Act.

Maybe something like this could usefully happen in Canada as well?

Heads of Departments and Lecturers may then find that students don’t sign up for courses which have excessive textbook costs. They then might start devising better ways of addressing this very serious issue.

Comment on To Summarize… by Katherine Tyrrell

Katherine Tyrrell — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 02:04:20 +0000

You might like to take a look at my commentary on this affair on my blog http://makingamark.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/ocad-pearson-art-textbook-update.html I’ve some experience of copyright and publications and why the publishing industry is currently having to reinvent itself.

I maintain everybody is looking at the wrong problem. Educational institutions can reproduce artwork for free. Textbooks need not be expensive tomes. It’s just that maybe somebody in Canada needs to make it happen…..

Comment on To Summarize… by brent

brent — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 15:50:09 +0000

You’re right, Erica. While this particular episode is working towards a localized solution, the wider theme of textbooks turning from a one-time purchase into a perpetual annuity for the publishers is a topic well worth a serious public investigation.

Comment on To Summarize… by Erica

Erica — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 04:29:29 +0000

Prices of textbooks are insane. Even just the MML access code I needed for math was 95$! Just for three months of access! Chem book 250$ new, 150$ used (but then don’t get that access code that you need so going to have to spend 100$ for the access code if bought separately) and a used health book 120$! Those three books cot more than my semester. I don’t understand why older editions cant be used when new editions generally don’t have anything changed except the cover and maybe some photos. Total ripoff. And trying to get money back at end of semester by selling? Yeah, good luck with that since they will already be made obsolute for use for next semester since publishers make new editions constantly and teachers seem to only want those ones.

180$ for an art book with no pictures is ridiculous. I can’t even believe they didn’t state that photos were not included in the book description. That publishing company should be ashamed of themselves.

Comment on Copyright and the pictureless Art History textbook by Kathryn

Kathryn — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 16:19:42 +0000

I think if a professor has too many ideas for a course then their students can afford, I think it is their responsibility to adapt their course to their students needs…with pictures. I took a course extremely similar to this one in my BFA out in Edmonton and I tell ya, that course was excellent and it had text books with pictures, no input needed. It’s an embarrassment to OCAD that it took this issue making national news for it to be resolved. I was thinking about an online course in October with these guys, but now I’ve had the chance to see a bit of the dirty laundry behind them, I think I’m going to look elsewhere. Schools such as these are notorious for ‘value for dollar’ issues, mine was no exception, but I thought this school would’ve been a break from that, not the exact opposite. And like it’s been said, it’s not like these courses reinvent themselves every couple years, this isn’t engineering, it’s history, it stays the same, and if the teacher can’t work within that without student guidance, well I wouldn’t want to sit in front of them for four months.

Comment on Watch this space by brent

brent — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 15:22:13 +0000

Hi Roman; I’ve addressed this in detail in a post today: http://www.ashleyit.com/blogs/brentashley/2012/09/23/to-summarize/