Saturday, March 20, 2010

The Impending Irrelevance of School

Why Are These People Paying $47,000 per year to sit next to each other? They can consume the same content from the comfort of their homes. With infinite seating capacity, thousands could attend the same lecture as 3 dozen attended in the old model.

Brick & Mortar schools are the technological equivalent of DVD's. The 4 year university degree is about as valuable as a 5,000 square ft. MacMansion in a Houston suburb. Most people owe more on it than it is worth.

Researchers and developers at the University of California, Berkeley are working on open source software to help distribute audio and video files of classroom lectures to media services like iTunes and YouTube. The university already publishes full-length videos of classroom sessions on YouTube, but recording, editing, and posting these videos is an costly undertaking. Now, new grant money will pay those expenses and help expand video distribution worldwide.

36 comments:

DMG said...

MOTI,

Are you a Phoenix?

DMG said...

Yeah, that's what we want, more people sitting in front of a computer screen, googling, youtubing, facebooking, blogging all while passively receiving a lecture. University was much more than sitting in class. I don't know where (or if) you went to school.

Big Man said...

I went to school for free.

Only losers pay for school.

Anonymous said...

DV, there are legitimate points you make because education ought to be accessible to everyone. The issue is that it isn't just about looking at lectures and compiling information. The teacher student bond allows for someone to examine your thought processes. If everyone read stuff without understanding content in context or lacked foundational knowledge to understand what they are reading, we'd be in a big mess.

But I totally agree that the classroom does not have to be a brick and morter establishment; it can be a virtual place online.
-Mahndisa

the good nurse said...

Mahndisa! Where u been girl?

Michael Fisher said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Michael Fisher said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Michael Fisher said...

Actually "DV" is correct on this one. I decided to augment my JD by getting a LLM (Masters of Law) from a major German University and am doing the course of study over the internet. The tuition is about $550.-- per semester, by the way. The Germans roll like that. I'm enrolling my daughter in On-Line High School in January.

Michael Fisher said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Denmark Vesey said...

Plantation Negro MD,

As you've demonstrated, you're not much of a forward thinker.

Apparently it is difficult for you to grasp a concept until it is spoon fed you by an institution (Massa).

However anticipating the inevitable is what creative people do. You're a parrot ... with a stethoscope.

You don't generate ideas. You repeat them after you are able to detect consensus.

The current university business model has been producing a rather poor product as of late.

Conformist dullards molded to do what they are told. (Squirt monkey virus juice up their noses for example).

Now that they are being laid off in scores, now that even attorneys are looking for work and people are gradually turning their backs on Plantation MD's trained to cut people and sell drugs ... the marketplace is looking for effective education options.

Yes PNMD, the education system of the future will be much like what I've been administering to you here.

I'm educating you pro bono. Kind of liking giving back to the less fortunate.

Not a handout. Just a hand.

Denmark Vesey said...

Mahndissssssssaaaa!

What's happenin'? Where you been?

"The teacher student bond allows for someone to examine your thought processes." M

You are absolutely right.

Which is exactly why the old school model is doomed and online education will dominate before your son reaches middle school.

I submit. That as more and more of our human interaction becomes virtual ... we are developing a generation of people, actually more comfortable interfacing in cyberspace than face to face.

The opportunity to bond ... NOW ... is via technology.

Preteens text each other in the same room. They don't send notes, they send IM's.

Good. Bad. Doesn't matter. It's different. It's the way it is. A gigantic cultural shift is taking place.

Being in physical proximity is having less and less to do with relationships.

I consider Sista Nurse a good friend. I know more about her than either of my neighbors. Yet I've never met her in my life.

I employ people who I interact with everyday. I've seen their children grow up. Yet we've never met.

Expecting an education model developed in the 19th century to remain the same ... is a poor use of very expensive educations.

Denmark Vesey said...

"I decided to augment my JD by getting a LLM (Masters of Law) from a major German University" MF

I like that Mike. That's gangster.

Undercover Black Man said...

But Mike... is you studying German law? What you gon' do wif a German law degree?

Just wonderin'.

DMG said...

MOTI,

Your problem is that you are one-dimensional, and well, just a fucking bore. And when are you going to stop perseverating over vaccines?

Sure, I can take a course online, and interact with the teacher like we are doing now...typing (which is a limited medium). However, you'll never be able to interact with the person sitting next to you...or have an enlightening discussion AFTER class with a classmate who may have had a different take on the lecture--leading you and he to a completely new idea. You won't interact with people outside of your discipline. Have the casual conversation with someone working on a completely and seemingly unrelated research project, only to find that your projects compliment the other. University is not merely about dispensing information. You could read a paper or attempt self education or homeschool, or whatever. I have to disagree with you here Mike, not all disciplines lend themselves to online teaching. Perhaps an LLM may be amenable, but certainly not "Eukaryotic Gene regulation" or some of the more creative disciplines, that require personal interaction or hands on training. My opinion is that high school is as much about socialization as it is about foundation information.

Really man, I must be getting under that thin shallow skin of yours, you are starting to foam at the mouth.

MOTI, you are educating nobody. You have to have something of value to say in order to share it and call it education.

No, I've said it before, you are the street corner profit with logorrhea, perseverating on things he does not understand. The best way to shut you up (or make you rhyme incoherently...) is to ask you to explain your thesis in detail, or back up your arguments with example, or provide proof (like I've asked you now three times to provide the link to the girl/watermelon picture...). You strangely fall silent, shift to diversionary tactics, or summon your flying monkeys to run interferrence while you escape.

Putain

Denmark Vesey said...

DMG, LOL. Plantation Negro MD. You spend more time with DV. Than your caucasian wifey.

Do you REEEEEEALLLLLY ... think you foolin' anybody?

You on my jock harder than that faggot chassin' Versace.

Just because you pick little play fights doesn't change that reality.

This is school Negro MD.

I'm late for a little cocktail party.

Tomorrow don't be tardy.

KonWomyn said...

Yep there is a big shift to digital education which makes the brick and books system of education irrelevant. For university kids in Africa where books are either too expensive or unavailable because they're written and published in the West (incl those relevant to the Big A), this system of education is the way fwd. Given that one has access to the internet, Google books has a vast enough collection of material and there are online journals, e-notes, e-libraries and conference papers freely available so one has relatively easier access to the stuff they need.

The university lecture hall remains a place of instruction but real learning has and always will take place beyond it. Before it was in libraries and student group meetings etc but now that place is global and digital.

DMG said...

MOTI,

I'd enjoy meeting you in person. Perhaps you'd do me the honor of stepping to me with your fake swagger. However, you wouldn't get the first syllables of an insult about my wife out your bitch lips.

Believe that.

Don't take the diction and the Medical Doctorate after my name as a sign of being a punk. So far you've been all talk, can't back up anything you say. I suspect a physical confrontation would be similar.

So, why don't you take a breath, and a step back, and keep your words in check. Brother.

uglyblackjohn said...

People are NOT paying just for the education at traditional schools.
Enculturation/acculturation is (are) the primary benefits.

Michael Fisher said...

Mills...

" But Mike... is you studying German law? What you gon' do wif a German law degree?"

The same I've been doing with a German law degree. I went to law school at the venerated Ruprecht-Karls University in Heidelberg. Finished in 1986. And then proceeded to build my company which had offices in Heidelberg, New York, and London before I closed it down in 2005. I was in need of a trans-national legal education, you see. I'm just as well versed in German law as I am in UK and US law. Only French law is a bit of a problem. Then again, I'm ok with European Community law.

Michael Fisher said...

^DMG, I hope you're not trying to imply that law isn't a creative discipline. In any case, High School is first and foremost about education. Socialization can be done anywhere. Socializing, too. fact is, sitting in class rooms listing to a droning teacher is about as unproductive as one can get. Heck, this way is as if I'm sitting in the class room with my kid. I'll know whether she is goofing off or studying, I'm available to answer questions (I used to be a teacher in the NYC school system in the Bronx while building my company). And when she's done with her school work she can do other creative stuff. Plus it frees us from the constrains of physical locality. She can do her work from Europe or Japan if I happen to have to travel there and need to take her with me. As to interaction with other school kids - there's video communication. Shoot, I deal with folks oversees in my business via Skype video on a daily basis. For the cost of naught.

CNu said...

Enculturation/acculturation is (are) the primary benefits.

Access to specific social networks is the primary potential benefit.

Sadly, 90% + of those attending university conduits to specific social networks are either unaware of - or fail to take advantage of - that otherwise fairly obvious fact.

Casper said...

MF
Shoot, I deal with folks oversees in my business via Skype video on a daily basis. For the cost of naught.

Fish peep Google Voice, Talk and Wave

Undercover Black Man said...

Mike Fisher: That's hip.

Undercover Black Man said...

Access to specific social networks is the primary potential benefit.

Tell me about it, magne. Dude I met in college 30 years ago done hooked me up with a six-figure Hollywood J-O-B.

Denmark Vesey said...

DMG said...

"MOTI, I'd enjoy meeting you in person. Perhaps you'd do me the honor of stepping to me with your"

Ahhhh Shut Up Jigaboo.

I'd pistol whip the monkey virus juice out your nose.

uglyblackjohn said...

"People are NOT paying just for the education at traditional schools.
Enculturation/acculturation is (are) the primary benefits."

True UBJ ... to a certain extent.

I mean, ostensibly that is what people are paying to experience.

But that's not what they do.

Look at these kids. They are all staring at computer screens.

They interact online.

They hook up online.

They meet online.

They study online.

They live online.

They sext.

Their virtual ... is their reality.

College isn't what it once was.

Yes. Of course "college" served as the magical mechanism for class ascension yearned for by the underclass for generations in this country.

A college degree once guaranteed a certain lifestyle.

Those days are over.

My grandfather's law degree in the 30's meant his grand children went to private schools.

His great grandson's law degree doesn't mean he will have a job.

Law Schools have as bleak an economic future as do condominium developers.

Brick & Mortar schools don't have the ROI anymore.

Take your kids college funds and buy gold.

Anyway. Remember where you heard it first.

Anonymous said...

After I saw "comment deleted" several times, I knew a comment by Michael Fisher would be next! Damn!

CNu said...

Brick & Mortar schools don't have the ROI anymore.

DenmarkVesey is truth.

Begging the kwestins, where in the alternative do you propose plugging your children in for maximum access and exposure to technology, technique, and tutelage?

Cause it's a whole lotta stuff you'll never get to touch or see in a distance learning context - and a whole lotta stuff you've got to have first hand OJT type exposure to in order to rep highly marketable skills.

DMG said...

Mike,

I think law can be creative. But it's study may lend itself better to an online degree (especially the subspecialty LLM) than say molecular biology, or something that requires hands on.

DMG said...

MOTI,

Life isn't the movies, or your blog. Watch yourself.

Denmark Vesey said...

^^ Ahhhhh Shut Up Jigaboo.

Later for your little threats.

Be thankful for what you learned in this thread.

You went from a little bitchy dismissive attitude towards online education at the top of this thead to to a half-hearted acknowledgment of it's usefulness and inevitability at the bottom.

Quit being a bitch ass and Thank Me Muhfuggah.

DMG said...

Mouth On The Internet.

Typing loud and saying nothing.

Anonymous said...

Based on your presence what DV's saying seems to have fascinated you DMG. Why do you pretend not to find the discourse stimulating? You are one of the primary consumers of denmarkvesey.net

DMG said...

Anonymous,

The fact that I can respond to this dullard in 2-3 min spurts while working on research projects and performing patient care should lead you to the conclusion that he's not much of a challenge...

If I weren't here you all would be bored anyway.

Anonymous said...

True that. Lately you've given DV a lot of material. Please don't go away!

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