Slashdot Mirror
Open Source Textbook For Computer Literacy?
dcollins writes "The college where I work has decided to forego ordering a textbook for the computer class that I teach this fall. Does anyone know of a free, open-source textbook for basic computer literacy concepts (overview of hardware, software, operating systems, and file systems)?"
"overview of hardware, software, operating systems, and file systems"
I have a hard time reconciling that this should be college level course material. What kinds of students actually need to be given this information in 2009?
I have a hard time reconciling that an educated person would be unaware there are college students enrolled in majors other than Computer Science.
If you've been to college, you almost certainly have been required to take courses outside of your major - usually known as survey courses. You're usually given a range of classes that meet the basic requirement. A CS survey course would likely satisfy a general science requirement for, say, a history major or an art major. You might even see students from other science programs (e.g. geology, chemistry).
#DeleteChrome
Considering this is an introductory class, writing a whole book might be a little much when it's unlikely the students are familiar with the subject. I'm not saying the students can't contribute their notes to an existing project, but making the whole class be just writing the book....
.
I would have recommended this link instead:
Wikibooks:Featured books
.
The problem with Wikibooks is much the same problem with open source in general. While finding a books related to the subject you are interested in is easy, finding one that was completed to a usable state before being abandoned is a different matter.
.
These two look like they might be a good starting point for the author:
Basic Computing Using Windows
How To Assemble A Desktop PC
.
There's also the much overlooked:
http://en.wikiversity.org/
And Wikiversity Featured resources
.
This one might also be useful as well:
Introduction to Computers
Quick answer:
Introduction to Information & Communication Technology - Using Free Software and Open Technologies
Edited By: Will Brady
http://openbookproject.net/courses/intro2ict/index.xhtml
The Non-nerds Guide to Computers
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Non-nerds_Guide_to_Computers
But seriously spend half an hour going through results of Google search on these terms: open textbooks computing
You will have to go through the texts yourself but there are many out there at many different levels.
Here are the main resources.
Wikibooks
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Subject:Computing
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Non-nerds_Guide_to_Computers
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Computers_for_Beginners
Flat World Knowledge
http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/
MIT Open Courseware
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_OpenCourseWare
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Electrical-Engineering-and-Computer-Science/index.htm
Make Textbooks Affordable open textbooks
http://www.maketextbooksaffordable.org/statement.asp?id2=37833
Student PIRGs
http://www.studentpirgs.org/open-textbooks-catalog#computersci
List at Walla Walla Community College
http://www.wwcc.edu/CMS/index.php?id=2835
The Assayer free books list
http://theassayer.org/
http://www.theassayer.org/cgi-bin/asbrowsesubject.cgi?class=Q#freeclassQAc
California Learning Resource Network (only math and science)
http://clrn.org/FDTI/index.cfm
OER Consortium
http://oerconsortium.org/discipline-specific/#Computer
Open Book Project
http://openbookproject.net/
http://www.openbookproject.net/courses/
Introduction to Information & Communication Technology - Using Free Software and Open Technologies
Edited By: Will Brady
http://openbookproject.net/courses/intro2ict/index.xhtml
O'Reilly Open Books
http://oreilly.com/openbook/
Textbook Revolution
http://www.textbookrevolution.org/index.php/Book:Lists/Subjects/Computer_Science
http://www.opentextbook.org/
http://freelearning.bccampus.ca/openTextbook.php?page_id=221&bookmark=Computing