Why aren’t course materials posted on PAnet available to everyone? PAnet has become an invaluable resource for both students and faculty. Unfortunately, PAnet is compartmeaized and students can only access their particular classes. Restricting students to only part of the information that Phillips Academy offers is a loss for the student. The more knowledge available, the better. Through three steps, Phillips Academy can enhance the educational experience of its students and contribute to the spread of free information through the Internet. First, faculty should be encouraged to rely more on PAnet and make an attempt to post much of their material online. Having homework and syllabi online helps students immensely if they forget their physical materials, whether in the library or at home over break. The convenience of working with the ubiquitous technology across campus is great and makes work much more efficient. Second, the course materials for all classes should be made available to the entire Phillips Academy community. In course selection, students would be able to get a better idea of what courses they are signing up for, and perhaps discover classes that they had not thought of before. Looking at the syllabi of other courses is both an interesting and educational experience. For those underclassmen with time on their hands, why not look at what’s being studied in Economics or English electives? Finally, all of the course material on PAnet should be made available free, unprotected and organized on the Internet. The audience would include prospective students, parents and siblings, alumni, and the general public. This step toward an “OpenCourseWare” system would establish Phillips Academy in the forefront of free information sharing. The idea of “OpenCourseWare” was first generated at MIT, which now has over 1,400 classes’ materials published. Johns Hopkins and Tufts have followed suit, along with hundreds of colleges and universities worldwide. Prospective and new students would not be restricted to the brief descriptions in the Course of Study book; instead, they could go online and see last year’s lectures. While many classes change year to year, the essence of the course stays the same. Parents and siblings, always eager to learn what their sons or daughters are studying at the moment, would be primary consumers of course materials. Alumni might also check in on their favorite subjects or instructors. The audience of the general public is the wild card in opening up course information. High school students at other, less challenging schools across the nation would benefit from more complex information on their own classes, or perhaps classes they are not able to take. If many PA students were at public high schools instead, they would be eager for the opportunity to learn in more detail. A concern at letting all this information loose on the internet is that this would somehow replace the classroom or cheapen the elite level of education at PA. But while lecture notes and test keys are certainly an important part of teaching here, they are insignificant in comparison to the intensity and excitement of our faculty. Admission at PA grants much more than chemistry notes. No Internet resource can replace the attention, interest and personality of professional educators. The future of knowledge in our interconnected world lies in open systems; not closed ones. Phillips Academy should take a step toward opening our own digital gates.
