Today is “80s day” at my son’s school, Mesa Elementary. As I rummaged through an old box of t-shirts looking for something that might fit the bill, I reflected on the memories associated with each one. There was my “Shick 3-on-3″ sleeveless T, a reminder of the regional basketball tournament, at which I and my two teammates got completely destroyed (yes, the games were really that ugly). But that was in the 90s. Another sleeveless T, this one from a 1984 Thomas Dolby concert at Macky Auditorium. But it’s kind of esoteric and has pastel colors on it, and it just looks like the kind of shirt that would get your ass kicked if you wore it to school. Not speaking from experience, of course. Voila. A classic 3/4 sleeve gem from Yes’ 90125 tour. As did most $30 concert t-shirts back then, it shrunk and unraveled almost immediately after its first washing. But I hung on to it anyway. And now I know why.

But I digress. Here he is:

And it’s not a bad fit at all given he’s a 6 year old wearing what was sold to be a grown man’s Yes concert t-shirt.

Parenthetically, nobody actually knew who Yes was once we got to school. But I assured him that some old teacher or parent at some point during the day would tell him that his shirt completely and totally rocked.
And I kid you not, as he was walking into the school after our goodbye hug, I heard a dad approximately as ancient as I am yell in his direction, “Yes! That ROCKS!”.

Institutions of higher education have always been at the forefront of the OpenSource movement, responsible for some of the greatest collaborative programming projects ever completed. Its seems fitting then, that such an institution would be the birthplace for another form of OpenSource collaboration.

This semester for the first time ever, Stanford will be offering three courses taught by some of the leading professors in their fields, all for free. These online courses will be actively monitored, taught and graded by the professors of Stanford’s computer science department, with no other objective than their desire to bring their knowledge to any who would like to learn. All that is required is the willingness to learn and actively participate in the course.

No mere “show up and get a grade” courses, students can expect to have a workload similar to that of a regular on-campus courses with full readings, assignments and tests. Upon finishing the courses, all students will receive a certificate of completion.

Currently there are three courses being offered by Stanford for free this semester;

Introduction to Artificial Intelligence: http://www.ai-class.com/

Machine Learning: http://ml-class.org/

Introduction to Databases: http://db-class.org/

The hope for these courses if they are successful, is that more universities will follow in the footsteps of Stanford and offer free courses of their own, perhaps eventually making it possible to acquire the equivalent of a full undergrad (or graduate) degree all for free, from top level institutions around the nation.

With over 100,000 people already signed up for the AI course, it appears the movement to bring higher education to the masses may well be on its way to becoming a real and viable option for people everywhere.

Follow the links to sign up and try your hand at a new kind of college education!