Textbooks

This one-hour podcast entitled, "Net Generation Students and Campus IT: Supporting Student Success in the Age of Multitasking, Facebooking, and Instant Messaging," was recorded at the EDUCAUSE 2007 Southeast Regional Conference. Moderated by Jeanna Mastrodicasa, co-author of Connecting to the Net.Generation: What Higher Education Professionals Need to Know about Today’s Students, this panel discussion features students Olivia White, Agnes Scott College, Joan Collier, Georgia State University, Chris Davis, Georgia Perimeter College, Irakli Gabruashvili, Georgia State University, and Anu Parvativar, Georgia Institute of Technology. They share candid advice for higher education, from the reality of file sharing and laptops in the classroom to their distaste for textbook prices and faculty Facebook friends.

"Phase l of the Association of American Publishers' Alternate Format Solutions Initiative (AFSI) is being completed . The findings and options developed during the initial research phase are to be presented to the AAP's Higher Education publishers for study. The shape of AFSI's Phase II will largely be defined by the results of Phase 1, and the nature of and timetable for Phase ll's next steps are expected to emerge shortly. This session will provide an opportunity for attendees to get updated on the efforts so far and to contribute their insights, pose questions, engage in discussion, and thereby contribute to the AAP's ongoing collaborative effort to develop a practical set of effective solutions to the real challenges of getting textbooks into alternate formats on a timely basis for post-secondary students with disabilities."

At CSUN 2007 this past week, Rick Bowes provided a very broad and informative report of where the publishers stand in terms of their interest and comfort with postsecondary DSS alt-text/E-text creation and provision. In general it appears that the two sides are getting more comfortable with each other and the gap is starting to narrow with some concessions on both ends. The publishers look-up service has made locating the right people and communicating with them to get digital files of textbooks much easier - but is not being used as much as they woould like. Though not perfect – this service was and continues to be a concrete example of what the publishers and educators can do when they find common ground. (Not so subtle hint --- this service will only continue and improve if we on the postsecondary disability services side use it and provide appropriate and honest feedback.)