open Right now a debate has started concerning open educational resources, those textbooks, course materials, and related items that are relatively free from copyright restrictions, meaning that they can be copied freely by students, instructors, or anyone else. They're a Big Deal in education these days because they're one possible answer to the skyrocketing costs of textbooks and other curricular materials.

Many believe that commercial publishers are to blame for those high prices, and not without justification. And some educators believe that as a response to that, commercial publishers and similar entities shouldn't be allowed to use the materials that are being developed by universities, organizations, and independent educators that are meant to be freely shared. But there's a bit of muddle-headed thinking there. If you really share something with the world, the idea isn't to say, "You don't share yours with me, so I won't share mine with you!" If your goal is maximum propagation of the materials you've created, you'll allow anyone to use them for any reason in any way without restriction.

In fact, commercial publishers would be wise not to reprint open educational resources, even if permitted to do so. Once hooked on easily obtained materials, those publishers might rely more on them than they do their own materials published in house. After all, reprinting free materials carries less up front cost than developing one's own. But since free materials cannot be re-copyrighted, there would be nothing to stop others from freely copying those materials, even once republished commercially. In other words, commercial publishers might make a little money in the short run from republishing open educational resources, but in the long run they would simply be publicizing those materials, leading more and more people to be exposed to them and thus be able to copy them for others.

Use of open educational resources, while still in early stages, has been growing for several years now. Have you been in a class where you've been an assigned a free online textbook to read rather than an old-fashioned printed book you had to buy? If so, did you like it, was it any good? If not, would you like to have such an alternative? Comment and let us know what you think!