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.

One Small Degree for Man, One Giant Perk for Mankind

My high school tried to talk me into going to college by telling me how much more money I could make with a degree. The report that proves them right has updated and released. Education Pays 2007 (pdf) emphasizes the benefits of higher education to both the individual and society. Pages 9 through 20 will show you that college graduates are still earning more money and have better benefits. Unfortunately minorities and women are still not getting paid what they deserve, but that is another topic.

What I think we should talk about more is pages 21 through 28. These are the benefits that are not associated with money. For example, people with higher education are more likely to vote, donate blood, and volunteer their time. The children of graduates are more likely to be able to count to 20 and write their name by the age of 5. They are also more likely to participate in after school activities. Not just the mathletes, sports and religious activities are more likely as well.

If the money is what you really want to focus on, things are still pretty good. College graduates have lower unemployment rates, and since their are getting paid more, they are paying more taxes. Having more successful college graduates is just smart economically. That's why we need to start investing more time, energy, and money to making degrees affordable and attainable. In 2004 graduates were taking an average of 11 years to pay off their debt, and the cost of college has done nothing but rise since then. I realize that it costs more for everyone that is contributing, but we can let the students pick up this much slack.