CK-12 Foundation Releases Journalism FlexBook

Palo Alto. California

The CK-12 Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to giving people access to high-quality K-12 educational materials, today announced it has added a high school-level journalism FlexBook, to its free library of open-source textbooks.

The book was written by Nina Scott, who is an instructor in English at Phillips Academy, an independent boarding school located in Andover, Massachusetts. A former journalist herself, Scott teaches a journalism elective to high school seniors every fall. She also serves as the faculty adviser to the school's 136-year-old, student-run newspaper, The Phillipian.

Scott began collaborating with the foundation last spring, after learning of CK-12 at a conference sponsored by the Eight Schools Association Technology and Learning Institute. Inspired by CK-12's mission, she reached out to the foundation with the idea of donating her journalism textbook to make it available to the public.

"When I heard the foundation's vision, I immediately knew that I wanted to be part of it," said Scott. "CK-12's mission to collect superb academic resources and to make it all available for free so teachers can curate their own textbooks from that material is extraordinary. This struck me as an amazing gift to the world and I wanted to be part of it."

Neeru Khosla, co-founder and Executive Director of the CK-12 Foundation said, "We are extremely grateful for Nina's donation and excited about this addition to CK-12's offerings. Contributions from authors like her are an integral source of our content and they are instrumental in helping our foundation advance its goal of providing and increasing access to high-quality educational resources. We would welcome additional donations to our library, whether from our partner organizations or individual members of our community."

Scott started writing her book in 2006 after she had trouble finding a text to use in her new journalism course. The result was a first-person manuscript that explains the basics of journalistic skills and motivation against a backdrop of personal narrative, drawn from her own experiences as both a journalist and a teacher. "My book is more of a conversation and a story," she said.

In the process of converting her textbook into a FlexBook, Scott also worked with CK-12 to embed links, images, videos and practice exercises throughout the book. CK-12 documented Scott's work with the foundation as a case study to benefit future partnerships with other content contributors. Interviews with the author and a timeline of the FlexBook creation process will be made available in an appendix to the book. Access the Journalism 101 FlexBook at http://www.ck12.org/book/Journalism-101/.

About the CK-12 Foundation
The CK-12 Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing access to high-quality educational materials for K-12 students all over the world. CK-12 offers free high-quality, standards-aligned, open content in the STEM subjects through an integrated set of tools for learning: digital textbooks, concept-based learning resources, SAT preparation and an interactive Algebra curriculum (with additional math and science subjects in progress). All products can be customized to match the needs of the student, educator or school. By providing these no cost resources, CK-12 is working toward educational equity for all. Learn more at http://www.ck12.org/.

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