[Edu-sig] poking some dying logs...

[kirby urner]

> Another hot button issue in Portland these days is whether families
> have the right to demand a PDF version of any assigned textbook,
> versus a hardcopy edition.  We have lots of tree huggers around here,
> worried about "green" and unsustainability.  To quote one of my
> colleagues (from her blog):
>
> "We need the text book companies to print thousands of copies of new
> textbooks every year, not so the authors can make money, though they
> make a little, but so the companies can make money... Do some central
> planning, and if the government can't do that without going through
> corporations, then it is time to [do it ourselves]".
>

Hmmmm, Lindsey reports her blog taken off line by Google thought
police (or does someone else have that power -- under the table deal
with China, to outsource censorship?).  Truly, it had some swear
words, I noticed them too (kept a copy, lots of us did).

She's got some other blogs planned.  Fair warning about Google (the
search feature within blogs is also anemic, could be we're seeing an
over-stretched infrastructure here, wouldn't surprise anyone).

I didn't see anyone liking the "PDF option" option yet, except on some
of the student organizer blogs.  I'm guessing most teachers are too
comfortably middle class to wanna rock the boat around gratuitous tree
killing.

I also got some hate mail (from Florida) claiming Portland has no
right to subvert the authority of CS departments by phasing in
Pythonic math with no direction from them.  I pointed out we're
working closely with MIT and various Silicon Forest companies with a
strong CS track record, don't need to work with universities in
Florida, or anyone kowtowing to ETS for that matter.

Such is life in the fast lane, back to work,

Kirby