Another Lesson Physicians Can Learn from their Kindergarden Teachers

Free Online Wiki could Save Schools Billions
An article in the USA Today by Greg Toppo, describes how Free-Reading.net, a wiki reading program for kindergartners and first graders may make big, bulky - and expensive - textbooks go the way of the film strip. The wiki which allows teachers to post their own lessons, comments and modifications has been approved by a textbook adoption committee in Florida and is awaiting approval by the state’s incoming education commissioner.

Since Florida is one of the five textbook markets in the USA, its move could lead to the development of other free materials that might someday challenge the dominance of a handful of big education publishers. Schools spend $4.4 billion for textbooks in the 2006-2007 school year, so the prospect of free state approved materials could have profound influence on how schools spend money.

Can healthcare providers learn a lesson from our Kindergarden teachers using Free-Reading? We hope so! If the medical information that is published on a medical wiki is free and high quality it will be hard to ignore.