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By David Rothman

freereadingx Here’s one more reason for the publishing industry to toss out DRM, at least for K-12—free competition without onerous "protection." USA Today, which doesn’t mention the encryption issue, reports:

"Since March, Dixon Deutsch and his students have been quietly experimenting with a little website that could one day rock the foundation of how schools do business.

"A K-2 teacher at Achievement First Bushwick Elementary Charter School in Brooklyn, N.Y., Deutsch, 28, has been using Free-Reading.net, a reading instruction program that allows him to download, copy and share lessons with colleagues.

"He can visit the website and comment on what works and what doesn’t. He can modify lessons to suit his students’ needs and post the modifications online: Think of a cross between a first-grade reading workbook and Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia written and edited by users."

Deutsch can even watch a YouTube video showing how other teachers handled the same topic.

The article goes on, some paragraphs later: "

"Schools spent $4.4 billion for textbooks in the 2006-07 school year, according to Eduventures. While that’s only about 1% of total expenditures, the prospect of free, state-approved materials could profoundly influence how schools spend money — and what publishers offer, [Adam] Newman [at Eduventures] says.

"If suddenly you don’t have to spend $100 million every four years on textbooks, it’s not found money, but certainly it’s money that could be applied to other kinds of educational endeavors."

Reportedly, 11,000 visitors have come to the Free-Reading site for teachers since Oct. 1." Wiki fashion, teachers can share lesson along with annotations and changes.

Related: Wireless Generation press release on the company’s free-reading.net.

 
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