????一堂數學課。如果學校能以一本5美元、甚至更低的價格購買很快就會沒用的課本，為什么要花上80美元？

????一批開放教育出版商現在就在致力于解決上面這個問題，而且逐漸贏得了大中小學的信任。包括CK-12和Boundless在內的這些企業推出免費的開源教材（大多為數學和科學教材），打造了數字課本和教輔資料，學生和教師可以隨意編輯它們。由于目前沒有某一家供應商能夠全面統治市場，所以這類服務越來越好的同時，培生（Pearson）、里德愛思唯爾（Reed Elsevier）和圣智（Cengage）這些的傳統課本巨頭就越為他們的商業模式感到恐慌。

????根據美國聯邦通信委員會（FCC）的數據，美國一年在基礎教育（從幼兒園到高三）課本上的花銷超過70億美元。而根據美國企業研究所（American Enterprise Institute）的統計，從1978年到現在，大學課本的價格增長了驚人的812%。這個數字超過了同期通貨膨脹、大學學費、甚至飽受爭議的醫療費用的增長。全美學院商店協會（National Association of College Stores）2012年的報告顯示，大學生在書籍和文具上每年平均花費655美元。

????學區和公立大學的預算緊張給了開源材料一個好機會。開源供應商已經開始雇傭傳統教材行業的精英。麥格勞?希爾高等教育集團（McGraw Hill Higher Education）的前任數碼產品總經理杰伊?查克拉帕尼于2月跳槽至CK-12，擔任這家非盈利開源教育技術公司的總裁。

????查克拉帕尼現年41歲，曾在麥格勞?希爾用五年時間為它打造數字產品，努力將這家傳統的教材出版商領上通往未來的道路。查克拉帕尼說：“我可以告訴你們，麥格勞?希爾和培生的未來志向就在這個方向。我想問題在于，他們現在做的基本就是把現有內容放到新的數字系統里而已。在這些內容自身變成垃圾、裝進新系統也只能產出垃圾之前，能做的只有這么多了。”

????CK-12沒有將課本看成不同章節內容的集合，而是將給定主題的每個方面拆開，變成電子課本中的一個個小部分，并稱之為“靈活課本”。如此一來，教師和學生就能夠自主打造自己的學習方式。相反，傳統課本——即便是電子版本的傳統課本——提供的功能就很有限。查克拉帕尼說：“CK-12主要著眼于科學、技術、工程和數學課本，將它們轉化為涵蓋所有內容的5000條基礎概念。它不同于出版一本教科書，然后每三年推出新版，借此獲得更多收入。這個創意來自對學生學習方式的思考。”

????2007年，在太陽微系統公司（Sun Microsystems）和風險投資公司科斯拉創投（Khosla Ventures）的共同創始人——億萬富翁維諾德?斯科拉的支持下，CK-12在加利福尼亞州的帕洛阿爾托（Palo Alto）成立，并由維諾德的妻子尼爾魯?斯科拉領導。很大程度上這是斯卡拉的家族產業。實際上，在查克拉帕尼跳槽到這里出任董事長之前，他曾出人意料地給維諾德?斯科拉發過郵件，回應后者2012年1月在TechCrunch上發表的討論教育未來的文章。電子郵件往來逐漸深入到電話交流，再到一起喝咖啡，最終發展成了一個工作機會。查克拉帕尼說，科斯拉家族希望教育改革成為他們能夠留給后世的財富。

????最近幾年，開源和免費教育運動這兩個有所不同、卻相互關聯的想法碰撞出了火花。免費的教育資源——比如Coursera上的大學課程——可以讓學生們免費使用。但是無論有多么喜歡這些課程內容，他們也無法重復使用、重新合成或將其用作他途。與之相反，CK-12這樣的開源材料不僅免費，也能以學生或教師認為合適的方法用到其他用途。大規模開放網絡課程（massive open online courses，MOOC）供應商，比如Coursera、EdX和Udacity都向越來越多的大學征集在線課程，供人們免費使用，盡管許多學校仍然堅持保留自身的課程內容。

????Call it a math lesson. Why would a school pay $80 for a textbook that may quickly become irrelevant, when it could pay around $5 or less?

????A cadre of so-called open-education publishers is slowly beginning to gain the trust of schools and university systems by posing that question. Using free, open-source education materials, firms like CK-12 and Boundless are building digital textbooks and learning materials (mostly for math and science) that students and teachers can use and edit as they wish. While no single outfit yet dominates, the better such offerings get, the more traditional textbook giants like Pearson (PSO), Reed Elsevier (RUK), and Cengage ought to fear for their business models.

????The U.S. spends more than $7 billion every year on K-12 textbooks, according to the FCC. And college textbook prices have increased by a whopping 812% since 1978, according to the American Enterprise Institute, surpassing inflation, college tuition increases -- even the much-discussed rise in medical expenses during that time period. College students report that they pay an average of $655 a year on books and supplies, according to a 2012 report from the National Association of College Stores.

????Major budget constraints on school districts and public universities have given open-source materials a shot. Open-source outfits have begun wooing traditional textbook industry talent over to their cause. Former McGraw Hill Higher Education general manager of digital products Jay Chakrapani jumped to CK-12 in February to serve as president at the nonprofit open-education tech venture.

????Chakrapani, 41, had spent five years at McGraw Hill, working to build up its digital offerings and bring the legacy textbook publisher into the future. "I can tell you that the aspirations of a McGraw Hill or a Pearson are in this direction," Chakrapani says. "I think the problem is that they are basically in the model of retrofitting existing content into these [new, digital] systems, and you can only go so far before it becomes garbage in, garbage out."

????Instead of thinking of textbooks as an assembly of different chapters of content, CK-12 has broken down each individual facet of a given subject into small parts in its digital textbooks, known as "flexbooks." This granularity gives teachers and students the ability to customize how they learn. By contrast, traditional textbooks -- even those that are digital -- offer much less versatility. "CK-12 basically looked at STEM [science, technology, engineering, and math] and broke it down into the 5,000 fundamental concepts, and they mapped them all together," Chakrapani says. "It's not about creating a textbook and every three years putting out a new edition so you can capture more revenue. It's about thinking how a student learns."

????Founded in 2007 with backing from billionaire Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems and VC firm Khosla Ventures, Palo Alto, Calif.-based CK-12 is led by Vinod's wife, Neeru Khosla, and is very much a Khosla family affair. In fact, Chakrapani landed his gig as president after emailing Vinod Khosla out of the blue, responding to an article Khosla had written for TechCrunch in January 2012 on the future of education. A few emails between the two eventually led to several phone calls, which led to coffee, which ultimately led to a job offer. Chakrapani says that the Khoslas want education reform to be their legacy.

????In recent years, the open-source and free education movements -- two different, but related, ideas -- have picked up steam. Free educational resources -- like a university course on Coursera, for example -- may be available for students to use at no cost, but students cannot reuse, remix, or repurpose that course content however they'd like. By contrast open-source materials like CK-12's materials are not only free, but can also be freely repurposed in any way a student or teacher sees fit. Massive open online courses (MOOC) providers like Coursera, EdX, and Udacity have been recruiting more and more universities to offer courses online to anyone for free, though many schools still insist on owning their course content.