Can we change educational resources?

Remember when you used to go out and buy an album for that one song you loved? You had to pay a fortune for "Smoke on the Water" and "Space Truckn" but really never listened to the rest of Machine Head (forgive me, those of you who would get a reference to Thriller but not Aqua Lung). Technology changed that and now I can download or even "share" music at a fraction of the cost. People are still creating music and people are still buying it, it's just more efficient.

For the most part, we purchase educational resources the same way we used to purchase music. We buy the whole book for one chapter or two or three units. There are companies out there trying to repackage educational resources in new ways, developing "course packs" and software companies developing programs that allow for the custom design of course ware but perhaps we need to change the paradigm completely.

Maybe this has already occurred and maybe you can show me where this change has come but what I am thinking is that the real educational resource is in the teachers.

The teachers combine the formal education, the mastery of subject matter(or at least they should) and they have the technical expertise in the manufacturing of teachable moments. The teachers are it. Publishing companies have known this for years. They are experts at mining teachers for their expertise through focus groups and feedback sessions, rewarding them with a free book bag and then offering the expertise back to the teacher or school in the form of the published work.

I think technology promises to revolutionize this, changing the cycle for good. We can make educational resources more affordable, more interactive and more engaging if we develop a communal approach to the development of resources through the use of technology. The wiki has shown that we can indeed create a collaborative resource that is useful and good.

We just to need take the next step and with a little creative design, a little programming we can make resources better and cheaper and cut out the middle man in the process.

Anyone want to change a paradigm?