NoTiG
August 30th, 2005, 01:25 PM
What is needed, I think are wikitexts... sort of like wikipedia where the community contributes. A collaborative compendium of knowledge would help education, and elminate those who sap off the system, as in, make a profit from learning. Right now in my college for instance, every year or few years the texts are slightly changed or altered... so that the books can be resold anew for profit. This is entirely pointless and inimical to students who try to learn. The basic premise is that subjects do not really change much over time... think of algebra.. it's rules are in the public domain... shouldn't more subjects be in the public domain as well? Of course there are probably some situations (like in an evolving field) where it might not be as suitable.
I have always thought myself that books were the best teachers, and in fact I have never really had to ask a teacher a question because the answer could always be found in the book we were using. In the future with really cheap electronic displays (foldable OLED screens), really cheap storage devices ( whole libraries will fit in drives just inches in scale, and free software to run the backbone (ubuntu) ... what is needed is Wikitexts i think.
I have always thought myself that books were the best teachers, and in fact I have never really had to ask a teacher a question because the answer could always be found in the book we were using. In the future with really cheap electronic displays (foldable OLED screens), really cheap storage devices ( whole libraries will fit in drives just inches in scale, and free software to run the backbone (ubuntu) ... what is needed is Wikitexts i think.