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You read that correctly. You should steal this blog post. I matter of fact would like to invite you to take anything from this blogpost and repurpose it for your own uses. I don't need or want credit. What I would like you to do however, is consider why you should steal this blog. But to do that I am going to need to tell you a story first. It's the story that you or someone you know, knows quite well. This is a textbook. This is a necessary textbook if you want to pursue a degree in the fields of mathematics, physics, or engineering. Now, dear reader. If you didn't fall out of your chair, couch, ideally not your car, the moment you looked at that price. I congratulate you. You are a better person than I. You might be wondering "Aaron, why are you bringing up textbook prices, everyone knows they are pretty high." To that I say, yes, but it builds to a bigger issue... ...Digital Equity.You can tell this is an important topic because the font is much larger. In the case of Complex Variables, this textbook doesn't come with a digital component. You can actually buy a used copy of this text book, or if you were feeling like a seafaring person of a certain era, pdf's are available... If you follow. If not, good for you! But this means you aren't locked into paying two-hundred and twenty seven dollars of united states currency for a textbook. But the problem arises if you aren't already a masters student. Let's take a look. I chose the textbook I had for my precalculus course in community college. Not because I want to throw Front Range Community College under the bus(Go WHITEFISH!). But because I don't want to bite the current hand that feeds me. Now, this particular textbook is pretty good so far as things go. I even own a hardcopy of the second edition from my time learning the subject. You can see that the price, while high, at least is being paid to living authors, and doesn't seem to be entirely a fist in the pockets of the students cash grab. But. you'll observe that there is something called "MyLab". It comes with an e-textbook and access to a study and exam prep pack. This is a cute way of saying, if you don't have regular access to a computer, the print textbook is useless, because you are required to buy access to your homework. Also, just for the glory and joy of it, it is also a subscription service. You'll notice multi-term access is cheaper, because very often there are two courses taught out of this textbook in sequence. But again, this requires you to be able to take these courses in sequence, otherwise you have to pay nearly thirty dollars more. This is where digital equity comes in. Should every student have access to reliable internet, technology, and tools? Absolutely. Is this the case in reality? Absolutely not. Should every student be covered by their university for homework licenses? Again absolutely. Is this broadly the case? It is not. I was able to afford both a hardcover and a mylab pass and have the ability to take the courses in sequence. I don't do great with reading online(Hah! I know right?!). So having a hardcopy is essential. Not every student is this fortunate. Sorry for my old man yells at cloud moment there. But it is important to consider just how much of a hurdle this is to success in school. One in three students can't take advantage of the internet. So what is digital equity? I would argue that a number 10. should be added. Transparency in education. As we see above, you pay for your classes, you pay a technology fee, you pay some other fees, you pay even more fees. I mistakenly thought that by the textbook, meant I had access to the homework. The questions are even in the textbook. But I was wrong. I needed to shell out for an expensive one time license simply to complete my homework. Speaking of homework, it's not like there isn't already a known equity issue when it comes to homework... ... But I digress. This equity issue comes down to this, you go to the campus bookstore, they tell you, you can rent a textbook. You get said textbook for the term, a semester, a quarter, whatever. It's far cheaper than purchasing a new textbook. You don't have to figure out how to offload at the end of the semester. You. Are. Set... ...up to be completely shanked. I didn't even know I had to buy access until after the first lecture. The syllabus didn't mention it, the professor didn't mention it, the class listing didn't mention it. The helpful student working the counter selling me a full price hardcover didn't mention it. The homework he assigned, was from the book. I will misquote now. "Page fifty seven, odd problems 1 through 15...." Well, you more or less get the point. I did the homework, went onto my blackboard(Which for those of you who don't know is a predecessor of canvas(and for those of you who don't know Canvas acts as a digital classroom landing page, where announcements, syllabi, homework and other important errata ends up)). And saw that there was no where to turn in the homework. I emailed the professor, who did take every second of his allotted twenty-four hour professional response time to inform me that even though he would assign the homework in class, it corresponded to an online component previously not mentioned. Which is when I got hit with a bill for a second textbook and access to the homework I had already completed. Let's just say I wasn't an old man yelling at the clouds in that moment...  Imagine how defeating this would be to any student?(Warning, this is a student experience site, and as such it is prehaps requisitely profane) These students in particular seem to agree with this particular viewpoint. Now all of this feels, sounds, and is purposefully lightly nihilistic. You might ask why, and I will tell you! Like any really good storm there is a rainbow of hope.  I want to return to my original course of interest, complex variables. Now, let's say you wanted to as an educator(which I am, and you may be, or someone you know), wanted to teach this course in a way that was inclusive and more digitally equitable. It seems like a lot of work to reinvent the wheel for every topic. I don't know about you, but that's a lot of time, investment, and tracking down how to attribute material... WHICH IS DAUNTING.I don't have the kind of time to write an open source textbook, while planning lectures and lessons and carrying on and doing things like petting my dog and cooking and eating dinner. So what are we supposed to do? Well, and not suspiciously, or dramatically, we aren't the first people to consider this. For example, referring back to Complex Variables. This is a fantastic open source set of notes. This is organized nicely, but you might be saying. This is not a textbook. Sure I can maybe use these... but I want something that's MORE obviously open access. Ah no fear, because as any good teacher is taught, I had thought of this beforehand. As you can see, this comes complete with a creative commons license, and not too surprisingly it is the same professor who authored the above notes. I would use the old saw about great minds... This is one of many great open source resources that can lower the bar for entry into mathematics, here is another. One more just for good measure. Not only is this open source statistics, but it teaches how to use an open source statistical software . We don't have to be shackled by the chains of McGraw Hill or Pearson in life anymore. This is your call to action.If your institution isn't already setting up a way to make the cost of mathematics more affordable and equitable for all students. Then you now have the resources to get the ball rolling. Loudly advocate for change. We can actually make Federico Ardila's axioms true.
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