Curriki

While doing my Black Friday shopping online, I decided to buy myself a couple books about Sesame Street. One of them was out of print, but I managed to get myself a like new copy for only $12. Even though the other one is still in print, I didn't get it. To buy it new, I would have to $50, and used copies start above $30. I went interlibrary loan instead. Both the books were hard cover, neither were published with a dust jacket. Generally, I expect my out of print book purchases to be more expensive, so what happened here? The second book was published by a faculty member at Morgan State University and is recommended for "upper-level sociology, education, and mass media." It is a textbook.

Instead of releasing the rant on book costs that is inside me, I'm going to share something optimistic. I would like to introduce you to Curriki. Curriki is the "Wikipedia of Curriculum." It is a global non-profit thought up by Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems. In the article's interview, McNealy says, "why are we open-sourcing browsers and spreadsheets and operating systems, when we ought to be open-sourcing third-grade math textbooks?" So this wiki doesn't seem to be focusing on higher ed, but we have Google Reader and the entire Open Courseware movement working for us. Not only is this a fantastic idea, but it is also a global endeavor.

Curriki has a bit more oversight to contributions than Wikipedia, but don't let that intimidate you. Check it out, sign up, and collaborate with educators internationally to influence education.