One of my students has told me about a wonderful - but presumably illegal - example of contemporary
Robin Hoods. In high school he and his friends shared all sorts of digital things, and not just music: especially valued were pirate copies of
Rosetta Stone language courses, and podcasts of the lectures offered by
The Teaching Company. (I should mention that this student is from a quite disadvantaged background.) I find I kind of like the idea of poor kids educating themselves in this way, getting the goods which more privileged kids get at Ivy League schools. Indeed, it seems closer to what the famous professors who are hired to deliver the Teaching Company lectures are probably after: not providing diversion for baby boomers caught in traffic or working the Stairmaster, but liberating knowledge for young people who might use it to change their lives - and the world.
One of my students has told me about a wonderful - but presumably illegal - example of contemporary 
Robin Hoods. In high school he and his friends shared all sorts of digital things, and not just music: especially valued were pirate copies of Rosetta Stone language courses, and podcasts of the lectures offered by The Teaching Company. (I should mention that this student is from a quite disadvantaged background.) I find I kind of like the idea of poor kids educating themselves in this way, getting the goods which more privileged kids get at Ivy League schools. Indeed, it seems closer to what the famous professors who are hired to deliver the Teaching Company lectures are probably after: not providing diversion for baby boomers caught in traffic or working the Stairmaster, but liberating knowledge for young people who might use it to change their lives - and the world.