When I was going to Snow College I feel like I finally realized the importance of learning rather than getting a degree. Suddenly grades didn't matter as much as learning the subject and being able to have an intelligent conversation on the topic. It was like night and day. Suddenly I was getting As in classes where everyone said was next to impossible. This change in my desire to learn also lead me to a class called Entrepreneurial Finance. I really had the desire to go to this class but already had too many credits and not enough time. I then went to the teacher and told him my situation. That is when I first learned about auditing, or going to class to learn rather than to get a grade. I learned a lot about finance and it ended up being one of the reasons I decided to major in finance. I feel like this was my first experience with open learning. Back in the 16th and 17th centuries learning was revolutionized. The percentage of educated people went up considerable during this time because of new inventions and new thoughts. I feel that we are going through a similar process. With the development of the internet we have thrown education online. Some of these include: 

• http://www.extension.harvard.edu/open-learning-initiative
• http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/#writing-and-humanistic-studies
• http://www.khanacademy.org/
• http://open.byu.edu/

These sites and many others are dedicated to bringing a new ability to learn to everyone around the world for free. Just as knowledge progressed from those who knew Latin and were extremely wealthy before the Renaissance era,  knowledge no longer has to be for those who go to college. It is incredible what has been done but it must be done with caution. The sites I have listed are open to users but not at all open to publishers. This is important because while everyone can and should be a consumer of knowledge, producers should have limitations. For example, just because I wrote a paper 4 years ago about how global warming is false doesn't mean I should be able to post it to a scientific journal. The same this goes with All Gore. Just because he has money and power doesn't mean he is right. There is a balance which must be found. This is a topic which has been and will be debated. Overall, however, I do believe that having an open society will make us better off. We just have to be careful what we consume and create.