[TOS] Another few steps along the textbook path

[David Humphrey]

I thought Seth's blog post on textbooks was interesting - 
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/06/textbook-rant.html.  How 
do we avoid these same snares?

Dave

Greg DeKoenigsberg wrote:
> 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
> 
> --
> Computer Science professors should be teaching open source.
> Help make it happen.   Visit http://teachingopensource.org.
> _______________________________________________
> tos mailing list
> tos at teachingopensource.org
> http://teachingopensource.org/mailman/listinfo/tos