You may already be aware of the fact the UC Berkeley now offers a few lectures for free via the itunes music store. If you find your way to the Computer Science link, then to IDS 110: Introduction to Computers, you’ll find lecture 14, special guest, Fred Beshears of Berkeley, speaking about Creative Commons in the Schooling system.

Textbooks, on average, cost about $900 a year for 4 year institutions or roughly 26% of your schooling costs depending on what school you go to. In 2 year institutions, book cost jump to about 75% of student costs. Fred suggests a concept, somewhat in play by the British Open University, of making new co-op type text material available to Students under the Creative Commons license, for the most populated courses on a given campus. MIT currently uses something along those lines called “Open Courseware”.

I gotta say, I love the idea. I remember my freshman year at USC where I would wait to buy the required textbook, until it was completely … required. By that point, I was already behind and had to play catch up. Not a very smart way of saving a buck.

Fred’s Beshears lecture is a must listen for those interested in Creative Commons as a business model and way of life.
Fred Beshears and “Open Source” educational materials.

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1. Cory Doctorow at USC’s first FreeCulture Meeting.
2. iTunes Store will sell ENTIRE EMI CATALOG DRM-free!
3. This American Life is now a Free Podcast
4. Creative Sesame Street Censorship
5. The Gates of KCRW