Teachers go behind closed doors and deliver classes to a small special group and all others are kept out for fear of diluting the value of the product!

Through registration rules, applying to those in the education club, and membership rules to keep the masses out, we have made education a protected commodity.

There have been fits and spurts of academics and institutions trying to make their product more universally available but for the most part it has not worked!

Apple  has created iTunes U but even this has a very small reach that is controlled by Apple deciding who will be admitted, just another form of education clubbing!

What is stopping the average teacher KG through post graduate studies making their courses available to the curious public?

Nothing really, web2.0 technologies and the development of the laptop make self recording/editing and streaming of any content to anyone as easy as brushing your teeth!

I have been experimenting with posting my classes on livestream and have come to realize that VIMEO might be a better option, or you can see the latest class in the sidebar of this site!

I love the idea of creating a text that can be added to, developed and used by my students in class and by others globally, maybe a KNOL is the way to do that?

The point is what is stopping any professor from embracing the convergent media we live with and making their product, education, available to anyone and everyone willing to sit through an hour or so of a class?

Fear! Fear that what we say and do may not stand up to the scrutiny of the global jury?

Imagine the pool of content that could be tagged and disseminated globally on any subject if we professors actually embraced technology and made it work for us?

We really need to think of education as a global resource for all and not an elite protected commodity!

Lets face it those who want a degree will suffer my class in person and those who want to simply broaden their perspective will tune in and out as they need.

The winner? A globally educated population embracing life long learning!

I wonder why it is we send students on internships YET we do not see professors going on yearly internships themselves?

It is great that professors write papers BUT what about every professor spending 10 weeks a year in industry?

This professor internship could be amazing for the academy and amazing for business.

So why is this not the norm?

Just tossing it out there.