Quote:
Originally Posted by tomsem
Perhaps open source textbooks will gain some momentum, but I’m not seeing it.
I don’t fully understand how Pearson is successful selling textbooks given what is available on the internet for free. If I were teaching computer science, I would not be have my students buying and reading textbooks, I’d have them writing code every day, and coming up with projects on their own.
Khan Academy seems quite good for k-12 and there are no textbooks involved.
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There is a pretty big difference between k-12 and college.
Perhaps there are a lot of programming material available for free on the internet, but quite a bit of what is available for free in many subjects is questionable at best. I certainly wouldn't want to drive across a bridge designed by someone who learned civil engineering and bridge building from free articles on the internet.
There are certain classic programming books, some of which are college text books, others are not, that every programmer should read. For the most part, a good college education will give you are framework for continuing to educate yourself for the rest of your life. That's true of most subjects.