For many years now, companies have been talking about delivering etexts for a small fee (micropayments). Whatever is in the public domain will be downloadable for free, and online epublishers will sell what they can by well-known authors (such as the ground-breaking Stephen King who let one of his books be serialized and sold purely as an e-text). For my mass media course, we would talk about the changing technologies that enabled easier reading of foldable light e-book-readers and the drop in book reading. We'd marvel at how the research said that Americans would read about 3 books a year on average, and in the Pacific Northwest, that average went up to about 7 or 8.

A course redesign has brought up the issue of etexts again. Now, before I go further, I should clarify that I believe in supporting the textbook industry. They provide an important service of collecting and disseminating relevant information in creative and eye-catching ways. Their efforts at communicating with instructors to improve their products are admirable. Their reaching out to the academic community for writing talent also should be commended.

Okay, enough of explaining myself. So for this course redesign, a course used by 34 community colleges is being revamped to be more culturally sensitive for a particular learner group that has not found academia welcoming.

(Academia can be snobbish. It can be cold. It can be elitist. It can be culturally biased. It can be overly-focused on research and breaking new territory and on money-making entrepreneurial ventures. It can focus too much on big names and publishing. It can be exclusionary. And this is only in 5 seconds of brainstorming. And this is from a person who has been a part of this community for a long time.)

The changes to the course cannot be massive, but given the half-year of planning and ambitions, the changes have to be measurable, detectable, and positive.

To add a book would be to overly differentiate this version, which will include both mainstream learners and those of this learner group. To not have more readings would be to detract from the academic reading track, which enhances critical thinking and a larger sense of community and discussion. So I've decided to go with e-texts for the non-fiction essay readings. I would collect live URLs that seemed fairly stable and reputable. I'd make sure the essays were the originals. I'd avoid those with political wraps around them or clear agendas. I'd avoid those with extensive annotations, as I'd be providing my own learning "wrap" around the essays.

In just my first few hours of hunting through the WWW, I have a growing list of "Still Seeking..." for some essays and authors. For many authors, their works are all held by large publishing companies with no sign of relinquishment or sharing. No Creative Commons going on here. Then, I've run across a lot of solicitations for free papers leading to those that cost money. I've run across sites that will flash a paragraph of an essay and then charge money to access the rest. Then, there are sites by civic-minded people who have taken works in the public domain and made them available in a "you read and make up your own minds" fashion, and those sites really will enhance the course.

Revisiting e-texts has not been positive or negative per se. For all the repositories of learning objects, it should would be great to have more one-stop-shopping locales for free academic essays, to enhance learner access.