Tuesday, May 04, 2004
Facilitating Open Learning: Part 2
I came up with the following solution while dwelling on the concept of open learning:
A web community where those who want to continue learning on their own terms can congregate, learn, and display their accomplishments to the world.
This solution answers the problems discussed in part 1.
1. Most people aren’t self starters.
2. One of the biggest parts of education is interacting with other people and sharing ideas.
There is an incredible invention that solves these two problems that people seem to forget about these days. It’s the Internet. Despite the hard times that Internet companies have fallen on recently, one thing that the Internet continues to do better than anything before it is to bring people with similar interests together to form communities. When you are daily watching the advancement of your peers and interacting with them, self starting becomes much easier. The interaction of people on the Internet may not meet the real-time tradition of university learning, but the fact that discussions, questions, answers, and conclusions can be captured in digital form brings a number of advantages to the table.
3. Another part of education is the accountability that a professor provides.(i.e. grades)
The professor problem is a little harder to solve. One thing I have seen while participating in internet communities and online multi-player games is that people love to help out, they love to get credit for helping out, and they love to talk about the things that they know. Professors get paid to teach while mentors do it because they love to see their knowledge go to other people(this is not to say that most professors aren’t also mentors, most certainly are). People know a good teacher when they see one and this new community could allow people to give “Mentor Points” to those that help them through a course.
4. MIT publishes the list of materials used, but rarely are ALL the materials needed available for free. Many resources are copyrighted works available only through educational libraries.
This is a tough one as well. I don’t know the rules about libraries and what is allowed and what isn’t in reference to copyrighted works, but this community could build up its own library and allow the checking out of resources through applications like netLibrary.com.
5. What would you do if someone told you that they gave themselves an ivy league education? I’d chuckle at lease a little bit.
The solution to this problem provides the lynchpin to the business plan for such a community to come into existence. More and more people will consider Open Learning if they have a way to prove that they have studied certain things and completed the courses. For a fee, this new community could publish the “Participation Scores” of individuals to the world. A link to this report of participation can easily be put on a resume for future employer to look at.
Feel free to tell me why I’m stupid and this will never work.
A web community where those who want to continue learning on their own terms can congregate, learn, and display their accomplishments to the world.
This solution answers the problems discussed in part 1.
1. Most people aren’t self starters.
2. One of the biggest parts of education is interacting with other people and sharing ideas.
There is an incredible invention that solves these two problems that people seem to forget about these days. It’s the Internet. Despite the hard times that Internet companies have fallen on recently, one thing that the Internet continues to do better than anything before it is to bring people with similar interests together to form communities. When you are daily watching the advancement of your peers and interacting with them, self starting becomes much easier. The interaction of people on the Internet may not meet the real-time tradition of university learning, but the fact that discussions, questions, answers, and conclusions can be captured in digital form brings a number of advantages to the table.
3. Another part of education is the accountability that a professor provides.(i.e. grades)
The professor problem is a little harder to solve. One thing I have seen while participating in internet communities and online multi-player games is that people love to help out, they love to get credit for helping out, and they love to talk about the things that they know. Professors get paid to teach while mentors do it because they love to see their knowledge go to other people(this is not to say that most professors aren’t also mentors, most certainly are). People know a good teacher when they see one and this new community could allow people to give “Mentor Points” to those that help them through a course.
4. MIT publishes the list of materials used, but rarely are ALL the materials needed available for free. Many resources are copyrighted works available only through educational libraries.
This is a tough one as well. I don’t know the rules about libraries and what is allowed and what isn’t in reference to copyrighted works, but this community could build up its own library and allow the checking out of resources through applications like netLibrary.com.
5. What would you do if someone told you that they gave themselves an ivy league education? I’d chuckle at lease a little bit.
The solution to this problem provides the lynchpin to the business plan for such a community to come into existence. More and more people will consider Open Learning if they have a way to prove that they have studied certain things and completed the courses. For a fee, this new community could publish the “Participation Scores” of individuals to the world. A link to this report of participation can easily be put on a resume for future employer to look at.
Feel free to tell me why I’m stupid and this will never work.
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