WHAT?
Textbook Revolution (TBR) is a great online source for FREE educational materials. This is a student-run, volunteer-operated website started in response to the textbook industry’s constant drive to maximize profits instead of educational value. The majority of the posts are brief reviews with links to the authors websites. In a very few cases, Textbook Revolution is acting as the sole host for the books. In a few more, the site is an authorized mirror for files. They don’t publish their own material or contract authors to write books.
"The textbook industry today is run by a small group of very large corporations who care very little about education and very much about maximizing profits. The industry charges outrageous prices for new textbooks while simultaneously doing everything it can to make older versions unusable or obsolete...For an in-depth review of all that is wrong with the textbook industry, please read RipOff 101, a study by CalPirg...(Source)."
MISSION?
- To offer a one-stop online shopping space for students and teachers looking for free textbooks and related materials.
- To promote the need for and availability of these resources.
MASTERMINDS?
Jason Turgeon, Justin Peters, Wynn Williamson and Tyler Smith (Source)
JUICE?
You can find a lot of interesting areas, or categories with links to textbooks and educational resources here, including Business & Management, Computers-Tech, Earth Sciences, Maths, and Economics. According to the site, "you’ll find links to textbooks and select educational resources of all kinds. Some of the books are PDF files, others are viewable only online as e-books. Most books are aimed at undergraduates, but there are at least a few resources at every level, from kindergarten to post-doc. All of the books are offered for free by their respective copyright holders for online viewing. Beyond that, each book is as individual as the author behind it."
I love the fact that each resource on this site is also accompanied with a link to a short and useful review (Value added!). Since I am already here, I am going to again use my seventh sense to scan and identify eight (8) potentially interesting textbooks/e-books/resources that could excite me (and perhaps you!) soon. Here we go:
- Light and Matter - An excellent and very popular series of short textbooks on different physics subjects.
- Digital History - An incredibly thorough and well-organized book on US History from Native Americans through 9-11.
- 660 Programming E-books at ITQuestionBank.com - Ebooks are just one of the resources at ITQuestionBank.com, which also has thousands of links in just about every IT category.
- How To Think Like a Computer Scientist - An introductory programming textbook.
- Producing Open Source Software - This book is meant for software developers and managers who are considering starting an open source project, or who have started one and are wondering what to do now.
- Using English for Academic Purposes: A Guide for International Students - An online-only manual to help foreign students in their academic endeavors.
- Educator's Reference Desk - 2,000+ lesson plans, 3,000+ links to online education information, and 200+ question archive responses.
- Math World - Science World is a top-notch website that will serve any science and/or math student very well. The site has individual sections for Chemistry, Math, Physics, Astronomy, and Science Biographies.
Have fun learning and engaging with the Textbook Revolution! I am pretty sure you will also discover something relevant to your learning needs :)
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