On mySimon: Lemony Snicket: Trouble Begins Book Set
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Well...
Producing texts is "fun" and all that, however you've got a hurdle or two to overcome. Nothing unsurmountable, but they're there.

The prime issue is that publishers have an awful lot of material locked down under copyright, particularly in terms of graphics. However, that's "merely" a time/effort thing to correct. Most people draw shockingly :P

Anyhow, as far as doing texts cheaply, I'd go for LaTex. There's plenty of decent versions that work just fine, including (for getting to grips with it) Lyx. The hard part with LaTex is getting a format that works for you and planning graphics. It does math stuff superbly imho, so much so that when I have to do math oriented stuff I ditch products which have to have equation add-ons to work acceptably. Anyhow, enough of pimping LaTex!

I'd just add, that if teachers are to produce texts, then there needs to be some sort of work on a license for them to use. If they don't commercial publishers (and others) will just hijack their work. Also, people like recognition, plus money.

I'm sure that considering the savings they'd be making state education departments and/or districts could see their way to paying the teachers for the product. That and as they seem to have copy centers for their use that could be better put to producing the texts on disk (CD/DVD) or printing them.
Posted by: zkiwi   Posted on: 06/06/08 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use
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Well...  zkiwi | 06/06/08
Why not?  itpro_z | 06/06/08
Re: why not?  dgrainge | 06/06/08
Moodle is toast  Yagotta B. Kidding | 06/06/08
It is?  zkiwi | 06/06/08
Sounds profitable  Yagotta B. Kidding | 06/06/08
..with text books not only updated constantly"  David Spencer-20660146163390554490918120654216 | 06/06/08
Yes, updated...  zenwalker | 06/06/08
Yes, updated  itpro_z | 06/07/08
Kind of doubt it.  ajole | 06/09/08
Re:Why not?  we3morenos@... | 06/09/08
RE: Touch of button  gogalthorp | 06/06/08
One thing you did NOT hear him say, is that it will all be delivered in  DonnieBoy | 06/06/08
Not MS's call  mdemuth | 06/06/08
Yes, but...  zkiwi | 06/06/08
Even in Office  mdemuth | 06/06/08
Well...  zkiwi | 06/06/08
Just because you can save in PDF format does not mean that there will not  DonnieBoy | 06/06/08
Yes and no  Yagotta B. Kidding | 06/06/08
Again, that  mdemuth | 06/06/08
Again, MS may not be able to exactly "force" anybody, but that does not  DonnieBoy | 06/06/08
Maybe not 100% Microsoft's call, but you can bet they will be working  DonnieBoy | 06/06/08
you can depend  mdemuth | 06/06/08
And again, that STILL does not mean that MS will not be working overtime  DonnieBoy | 06/06/08
No, the customer wins  mdemuth | 06/06/08
Well...  zkiwi | 06/06/08
So, just how does the customer win if you can not view all content unless  DonnieBoy | 06/06/08
color ebook  krasni_bor | 06/06/08
Huge incentive  Yagotta B. Kidding | 06/06/08
Textbooks are in electronic format already  j.m.galvin | 06/06/08
The problem with traditional textbooks  jfreedle2@... | 06/07/08
comparison: paper versus elctronic delivery  dgrainge | 06/06/08
I have but......  zenwalker | 06/06/08
RE: cyber infrastructure  kmgorski@... | 06/06/08
How I think we should move towards an electronic book model  P. Douglas | 06/06/08
As with music, it will become much easier for authors to go directly to  DonnieBoy | 06/06/08
Stop the press!  P. Douglas | 06/06/08
Textbooks publishing  jfreedle2@... | 06/07/08
RE: Blended Paper/Online Books  hinkel@... | 06/06/08
RE: It will start with the students  cmjohnston@... | 06/06/08
Electronic Textbook  bret307@... | 06/09/08
RE: no text  wainmanb@... | 06/09/08

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