Free online course materials could save billions

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, New York, Deutsch, 28, has been using Free-Reading.net, a reading instruction program that allows him to download, copy and share lessons with colleagues. Colleges for years have tapped open-source materials, with instructors designing and giving away material such as lecture notes and exams. But the idea has been slow to make a mark in the less technologically savvy K-12 world. That may soon change. Websites such as hippocampus.org offer free materials tied to high school textbooks, and several college-level open-source projects are trickling down to K-12 schools. Read more at USA Today.com.