With California mired in budget crisis, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced the Free Digital Textbook Initiative that would replace some high school science and math texts with free, “open source” digital versions earlier this summer, hoping to save hundreds of millions of dollars a year for the state. This initiative makes sense as California is one of the biggest textbook market and the fields of math & science advance fast enough that digital versions can be revised more frequenctly than paper versions.

As part of a competition, California education authorities reviewed 20 open-source high school math and science texts to make sure they meet California’s exacting academic standards in time for use this fall. In August, the results were announced. An upstart nonprofit organization named CK-12 contributed a number of textbooks (all free and open source material), and ten meet at least 90 percent of California’s standards. This result is very encouraging.

Below are a few more links relating to digital open source textbooks:

In a Digital Future, Textbooks Are History – The New York Times

Is it time for public education to use digital textbooks? – Examiner.com

Curriki Calls on California Teachers to Open, Share and Collaborate to Enhance Education – Business Wire (Press Release)