The same institution that brought us GNU and Free Software Foundation is going to bring free quality education to the Internet in the spring of 2012. MIT is building an online learning environment that will be available to anyone that is interested and has a connection to the Internet. MITx is going to award certificates to those that demonstrate a mastery of the skills offered in the courses. There may be fees associated with some of the courses, but the idea is to provide an affordable online education. Welcome to OPEN EDUCATION.

Stanford has been posting lectures on iTunesU since 2005 and just celebrated their 40 millionth download. In addition to quality lectures MITx will provide course materials and a certificate without having to go through any type of admission process. It makes me wonder what Apple’s big textbook announcement will be at the end of this month in New York. Did MIT announce MITx now to try and steal some of Apple’s thunder? Is iTunesU going to be changing their model of just providing podcasts and videos of lectures? Is Apple going to become an accredited degree granting institution?

If you don’t think that we are experiencing a major change in education take a look at the textbook publishers. When I was in college they were the 400 pound gorilla that directed the educational process. That industry is scrambling to figure out how they are going to fit in with the new model of education. Teachers no longer want entire textbooks they want pieces of them. Today’s curriculum is comprised of a few chapters and problems from a textbook, primary sources, videos, interactive websites, apps, and a multitude of digital resources. Educators have the ability to customize their curriculum. Why be locked into the sequence and style of teaching offered by a single textbook? Sure, I liked my math textbook and it was great to have as a guide the first few years of teaching. That was how I was taught, it was comfortable. However, each year I taught pre-algebra I found myself using projects and resources outside of the textbook that were much more effective.

Remember when students realized that they didn’t have to wait for the teacher to give them the answers. They could access that information themselves whenever they wanted it. Students are now expected to have that information available at all times through some device that they are carrying around with them. If a student sits through a lecture and really doesn’t get it they now have options. They can go online that night and watch a professor from a top college present on that same topic.

Now MITx is going to eliminate the institutions last piece of leverage - certification. Not sure what would happen if a student walked into an Introduction to Computer Science class and showed the teacher the certificates from MITx indicating that they had completed a years worth of CS coursework from MIT over the summer. That day is coming. Students are being empowered to take complete control over their education.