[TOS] Another few steps along the textbook path

Greg DeKoenigsberg gdk at redhat.com
Wed Jun 17 09:11:21 UTC 2009


Hello folks.  After a great few days at the Softhum workshop in Drexel, 
I've made revisions to the textbook outline.  Find them here:

http://teachingopensource.org/index.php/User:Gregdek/Textbook

I've got more revisions to go through, but I move forward a bit at a time. 
The things I'm thinking right now:

1. I think back to one of my favorite computing books ever: Unix Power 
Tools.  One of the reasons it's so great, I think, is because it's written 
by many authors, in relatively small chunks, all of whom share their 
experience, and the style is engaging because of it.  I believe that 
between Chris Tyler, David Humphrey, Clif Kussmaul, Will Cohen, Heidi 
Ellis, Tridge and others, we've got a lot of experience and could do very 
well with that style.  My question: is that an appropriate style for a 
textbook?  If not, why not?

2. Case studies.  Should they be their own chapters, or should they be 
snippets that are connected directly to the material in question?  i.e. do 
we have a separate "moodle" chapter, or do we have an example of "how this 
lesson can be applied to the moodle project"?

As always, patches and comments welcome.  Another week will yield another 
revision.  :)

--g

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