EDUC 897 - Spring 2005 - CURRICULUM INQUIRY
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EDUC 897 SPRING 2004 - Books
The email message that I sent to the class list on Friday is also posted here (below). If you have not already done so, please read this message before using the "Books" link above.

From: Tony Whitson
To: Curriculum Inquiry class -- EDUC 897, Spring 2005
Date: February 4, 2005

Contents of this message:

  1. Books
  2. Adobe Acrobat Reader
  3. Email
  4. WebCT

1. Books:

  1. Two Optional / Recommended Books (not Required). I had the bookstore order limited numbers of two books that I entered on their computer form as Optional (not Required). I found out in early January that the UD was listing them as required. I immediately asked them to correct their listing and they said they would do it right away. I checked on the Web the next day and saw that the listing was corrected on the Web. I found out this week that the tags on the shelf in the bookstore still said "Required." I called to get this fixed, and they have told me now that those tags have been fixed. (See below for more information on each of the non-Required books.)
  2. Out-of-Stock Book (Standards Deviation, 2004). This is the real problem with the books for our class. The bookstore has informed me that this book is out of stock at the Publisher's and that they have not been able to get used copies from their network. The textbook manager at the Book Exchange on Main Street faxed requests to a dozen stores in his network when I visited him about this, but so far he has not found copies either.
       I wanted to start reading parts of this book at the beginning of the course, and to use this as a central text. I told the managers in both book stores that if we do not find enough copies for everybody soon, I will change my plans and students will not be purchasing the book.
       As of right now, if you do find a copy of this book, I would say don't buy it unless & until we find out that there will be enough copies for everybody. If you have already bought it somewhere, don't mark it up until you know if you might want to return it or resell it. My own copy is very heavily marked up, so I might need another clean copy myself. I might end up wanting to scan selections and put them on the Web. In case I need to do that, I have checked out the copy from the UD library -- so please do not recall the library's copy.
        Update: I called again just before 5:00 today (Friday) and the UD manager called Harvard University Press again. This time they told her that they were hoping to get copies on February 18, but Jennifer says they repeated over and over again that this is tentative. We will just need to play this loose and see how it goes.
  3. Optional Books.
    1. Understanding by Design. The publisher has just announced that a Second Edition of this book is scheduled for release in March. This information was not available last semester when the book order for this course was placed. I did a three-day workshop in August with author Grant Wiggins, and based on that I feel the new edition will be worth waiting for.
         Before this week the UD Bookstore had the older edition on the shelf for this course. They have returned their copies to the publisher and ordered copies of the new edition. If you have just purchased a copy for this course, you might want to return it and wait for the new edition. If you had the first edition earlier, you might decide you don't need to also get the new edition. This is an OPTIONAL book for the course, so you are not required to get it in any case.
         The approach presented in this book will be discussed in class, but the book is not a required purchase for the course. For those who are involved in curriculum development, however, I think you will find this to be a book that you will want for your own professional use.
    2. Flatland. This is a public domain classic that you can get on the Web or in many other forms (see options linked here & below).
         This book will be described in class as a way of demonstrating some important ideas; but you don't need to read the book for this class. However, students who have read the book in past semesters have unanimously said they are very glad to have read it; so I like to make it available as a recommended text. There should be inexpensive new and used copies in the bookstores, as well as the options linked from our Web page. This text is in the public domain, and all editions should be the same (although there are some places on the Web that have the text without the author's illustrations, which you should see as you're reading it).
  4. Bookstore Hours for next week (special hours):
    1. UD Bookstore: This weekend SS 10-7; Next 2 weeks M-F 8-8
    2. Delaware Book Exchange on Main Street:; Next week M-F 9-9

2. Adobe Acrobat Reader. Besides the assigned books, there will be other readings posted on the Web. These will be in HTML format (so that you can read and print them in your Web browser) or in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format, which you can read and print with the Acrobat Reader that you can download for free and install on your computer. There's a good chance that you already have the Acrobat Reader installed, but if you don't have it already you can click here to get the current version.  Note: The current version of the free Acrobat Reader is version 7.0; if you have an earlier version on your system you should use the link above for an upgrade to the new version.

3. email.

  1. your addresses. I am sending this to the UD Class List, which includes your UD email address if you are enrolled for this class. For UD classes and programs, you do need to get email that is being sent to that address. If you don't want to use your UD mailbox, you can set your account so that all mail sent to your UD address will be automatically forwarded to whatever other email account you do want to use.
        You will also need to have your UD email address activated so that you will be included in the WebCT roster.
  2. my addresses.
         You might have noticed that this email message has been sent from a special account that I have set up for this course. I do this because I get literally hundreds of email messages in my UD mailbox every day, and it is easier to give top priority to students in my classes during the current semester if your email is not mixed in with all the others. For this reason, it is better to send course-related email to this address ( tony897@comcast.net ). It is also OK to use my regular UD address for course-related email, but then please remember to put "897" at the start of the subject field (like in this message). That way I can do a quick SORT and locate all messages from people in the class.

4. WebCT. If you are using WebCT for other courses, you should see that there's a link on your "My WebCT" page for this course. I have arranged for WebCT to be available if we decide to use it for anything over the semester; but as of now I don't have plans for using it. You won't need to keep checking to see if anything is there. Everybody will be informed if we do start using WebCT for anything later on in the semester.

I'm looking forward to seeing you soon!