This conversation is closed. Start a new conversation
or join one »
Another Groundshifting Opportunity - Can we make Education free?
With significant amount of distilled knowledge base already available across the world in easy to access formats, plus the growing population which is either unemployed or possess a volunteering mindset, if we create an online mechanism where children across the world learn for free - will this not reduce drop out rates, bridge knowledge gap and help the poor look to a better future?
Mohamed Selim
may be you mean if certifications get to be free
what is a certificate?
it is a some sort of guarantee that the person, in question, is qualified to performing certain tasks based on certain standards
I don't think this can be free, what is education currently but a mechanism for money circulation?
if there is no money, the mechanism will fall down dead
who runs the system but organizations seeking profit, and more profits under the title of better facilities
I think, the motive should change, for the organizations running education, the motive was monetary driven, I really don't know how to change that
ahmed ibrahim
Shawki Shawki
Mahadevan Venkatakrishnan
Manish Kumar
For instance, We dont see any other free encyclopedia than Wikipedia on the net. And wiki is doing a great job already.
Hope it make sense would like to know your views.
Mahadevan Venkatakrishnan
It will be good if you read some of my responses...Wiki and other such things are important, but we need to create it by design - the free education system and not by default. The way the literacy divide is evolving, free education has to be structured in a way it can be of high quality, must be sustainable and available for everyone - irrespective of the location/access. I have mentioned online only as a ways of collating information, but the last mile delivery still has to be through people...
D. W. Major
Education is already free.
We have the Internet and like all tools it can be used for good and for bad.
The Internet is the greatest research tool in the world.
It connects to every Library in the world and you can access every book by the click of a button.
We can share information freely and can discuss online in real time without ever leaving the house.
One good example of this is the "Physics for future presidents" lecture of Dr. Muller from Berkeley University.
I disagree with many things he says but I appreciate the format and the fact that it is free for every person to access and to watch over and over again.
This is the way forward, to bring education to the home of every one so that people if they are unemployed can educate themselves to get them out of their situation.
No transportation fees and no university fees needed.
Education 24/7 free and for every person accessible especially for the poor and unemployed.
Selected education for the rich is racism!!!
Of course we need first to connect the poor countries like India Africa South America and China to the Great Internet community.
This can easily be done on the back of our work which is Zero Emission Transportation and Infrastructure:
The Airstream Train System is a new method of transportation that's a faster, safer, cleaner and cheaper solution for city, country and continental transportation.
With small variations in design and speed it can be used in a low speed city environment to a high speed continental transportation system.
The Airstream Train flies around the Track using cutting edge aviation technology. The Track is a hollow elliptical tube that provides a space for Internet, electricity, telephone, TV and even water to be supplied through it.
It is easy to maintain and upgrade.
It is a silent Transportation System that is faster than an airplane while producing water as the only exhaust.
D.W. Major
CEO
Zero Emission Transportation Ltd.
http://zeroemissiontransportation.webs.com
Mohamed Selim
there should not be education system at all
it's more of a system to sharing information
but will this let countries satisfied?
sure not, no circulation of money
though, qualified people will keep learning
currently it's like the rabbit and the carrot experiment
students are the rabbit, the process is education, carrot is money.......
Mohamed Selim
traditionally, education is using only three senses, to acquire knowledge
what if we increased that number of senses manipulated to gain new information
this will increase the learning by association
making it more easy to store/retrieve information
the best way I see is the team structure
as for not only the student is ready with scientific information but, with social traditions, and team environment
in this case, no need for experienced employees, students will go through all problems, due to working in teams
they will cooperate with one another, and so on, same as what happens in real life, work environment
Mohamed Selim
this is due to the change in the environment
the inputs have changed, consequently outputs will change through different mechanisms
if we take education as a process, inputs have changed, simply the availability of information makes the input changes, before people had to travel to get information, now things are different
this makes it better to come up with different outputs, goals and achievements in science or whatever
but the question, do we have to stick to the same old system to improve, my answer is no
I see the environment has changed became easy to find information and education became more easy and accessible to all, this makes us come up with different better outputs, efficiently
but what goes on in the whole world is to stick to old traditional methods in learning
the only good reason I see, is the circulation of money
as it goes for education is getting expensive year by year, under the title of better facilities
though, unemployment is high
we may conclude that it's not about better education
it's the system
to me, "coping" is the best mechanism ever
coping with good supervision is better than expecting the good from graduates
I think, anyone can do anything
it's all about management
Mohamed Selim
the environment(s) has/have changed, consequently, education systems should change
though, this is not what been happening
nowadays, information is available to all for free, it might need someone to be good at searching at the net
though, they still keep, potential wastes, in the form of books (printed papers) need to be dumped later, increasing costs, it could have been more easy to look for alternatives, but people prefer what they know
another point is that, what education is about but a certification, about what?
how ready students are?! (grading system)
education systems, does not make anyone ready, they provide information, can be accessed with a good searchers, or trial and error will get anyone there
as Sir Ken Robinson also said, this era is characterized by the certifications boom, "still you're not qualified, you need more courses", year by year life needs more qualifications, thus more money, more helping the economy, not education nor science
collages and faculties, take money from students, on what grounds?, providing free information!
or make people qualified, coping could have got a person there too, for free
anyhow, bottom line, education must change, the environment has changed, thus education must change consequently
actually the idea behind education must change, it's never a one way direction flow of information, from lecturers to students, this makes students reach the lecturer's status at maximum
though, it should be transformed into learning and knowledge acquisition
targeting building logic, this makes people, students be able to cope better
this makes us focus more on what the components of logic are
classes could be in a form of teams, introducing issues to come up with newer approaches, here students with newer inputs, could come up with more acceptable solutions than older generations'
education is not history, students know about what others came up with only.
Mahadevan Venkatakrishnan
Julie Ann 10+
http://chronicle.com/article/A-College-Education-for-All/128162/
Mahadevan Venkatakrishnan
Manish Kumar
Mahadevan Venkatakrishnan
Stevan S.
I would like to adress a couple of statements in the original post.
1. "...population which is either unemployed or possess a volunteering mindset" - could You clarify this sentence a bit?
2. "Online mechanism" - the wide shroud of the internet hasn't reached the poorest and most endangered areas of the world , hence it is questionable if this approach is actually feasible?
----
How about free educational systems, such as ones present in some ex-communistic countries? For example, this model of education is still present in my country - Serbia. It would take a considerable effort to show the pros and the cons of the mentioned model, and yes there are significant drawbacks in the free-for-all system.
Mahadevan Venkatakrishnan
1. There is 8-10% of the population who are adults and are unemployed. Most of them are actually 'unemployable' - but if we take a fraction of them and groom them to become facilitators, they could add significant value to the model. Also there are thousands of people who want to volunteer for social causes but either do not know where to offer their time, energy and efforts or are not available in a consistent time frame. But we can bring them together and even utilise their expertise as and when required.
2. Online Mechanism - I had clarified this point in one of my responses (refer below my response on June 19).
Yes. Like in Serbia or elsewhere, a similar form of free education does exist in India also - but the quality of the education suffers. The challenge is to offer superior quality education free - it is a fundamental right to everyone. If we think of it that way, then the whole concept brings in numerous possibilities.
Thank you
Abegael Jackson
dick hopkins
On challenging the course, if they reccomend you buy a certain book, you can bet you will not be able to challenge the course if you did not learn out of that particular book.
Math for instance, should be a course taught, reinforced by any book that teaches math. The course Challenge should be on Math, and not on that particular book.
Ramiro Benavides
Mahadevan Venkatakrishnan
Tony Nothanks
Elif Gültekin
Mahadevan Venkatakrishnan
Comment deleted
Mahadevan Venkatakrishnan
Alexander Shand
The only negative of a fully educated society? Where do we find people willing to do the hard labour to implement the ideas conjured up by those with a high level of education?
Mahadevan Venkatakrishnan
thanks for your encouragement. A fully educated society will only create a upward spiral of ideas, thoughts and action. And just being 'educated' doesn't eradicate hard labour. Rather it makes it more productive, enjoyable and environmentally healthy.
Sargis B.
Art, culture, and education are three things that are very under-appreciated and to suggest making it all free around the world based on love and affection towards the human race might be very bold and beautiful but bring about negative affects similar to the ones I described. So my suggestion is to strike a balance and cut the prices of colleges and universities because paying $50,000-$100,000 is crazy and impossible for regular people to do. If normal prices are given and a balance is created by taking into account each country individually instead of the world as a whole, I am all for it. That would be a healthier education system than a free one in my opinion.
viren patel
The drop out rates should not be a concern for now, as we are talking about online education it will not be rigid, no class, no roll calls. Same way, no fix count of students, no homework too ? Only then we are talking about free education. But with this, we won't get to know which student has learned how much. We need exams. There ! Oops, we again get stuck into the same cycle of teaching, examining, grading, passing. And we need the government to approve these exams and results. And we need to people to implement these systems again "remote teachers". So again the same cycle.
The transformation is coming, but it will carve its own way out through millions of discussions like this one. For me, i am glad to be part of each one that concerns education.
Matt Lane
Sargis B.
Matt Lane
The method, I think, will be the global electronic space (internet).
Sargis B.
Matt Lane
First of all, you sound like an a-typical big brother candidate. No offense intended, it is just what I am interpreting from your dialogue.
We certainly need better regulation in many areas, it can help us move in the right direction. I think that ideals though force us to confront the issue of outcome. Business creates great focus on incomes but not so good on producing good output. Ideals force us to do what regulations cannot. It is impossible to regulate our way to better outcomes. We have to build our institutions that way in the first place. We should strive for self-management. It is at the heart of our genius to do so. But that gets into a whole other conversation.
Mahadevan Venkatakrishnan
Probably Sargis mentioned it in a positive way. Any system that transcends culture, languages and locations has to have some form of regulation, whether we like it or not. It is altogether another challenge in ensuring that these regulations do not in any way affect the original goal. Thanks for your comments.
Comment deleted
Sargis B.
Matt, all I am saying is that information needs to be effectively categorized, organized, and presented so people will be able to digest it. Otherwise, it's like reading a massive history book with the pages mixed up and thrown all over the place. Presentation is everything and bad presentation can ruin even the best thing on the planet. Just look at the media and how effectively they manage to brainwash people and get them to believe what they want them to believe. It's all about presentation and we cannot create an effective online platform or system of any kind if we do it wrong.
Mahadevan, you got my point.
Jose V Balaguer
On superior education I think the answer is NO because the intellectual property will exist for longer. Latest books and advances in many fields are spreading under payment and this will continue.
Saying this I have to mention that Superior Education in some countries is almost free. As an example, here in Spain Public Universities costs are about 1.000€ per year. Very cheap. Private high-qualified superior education and phd are under 18.000€ per year.
Mahadevan Venkatakrishnan
I agree that in a macroscopic sense, nothing is free. But Nicholas Lukowiak said below 'Nothing is free. Everything has a cost'. But if we ask the Question "free for whom?", then we get a better grip of the idea. Making education free for the un-educated, un-able and the un-fortunate.
Eric Kimbro
Vijay Alagar
dick hopkins
Education must not be provided as a means to indoctrinate children to Religion as the Rule of law.
R Vishnu prasad
jaeyun hwang
The problem is 1) There is no accreditation. Even if i learn everything on the net there is no company, school or government institution that will accept my credentials.
2)Real learning can not be paid for. How do you learn to cut wood, ride a motorbike, sew? You don't learn that online or from a teacher. You have to do it yourself. Experience is something not even the internet can do.
3)The teachers union are strong. They won't work for free. Football coaches are stronger they get paid loads.
Nicholas Lukowiak 50+
1.) Agreed
2.) Agreed, mechanical education is important.
3.) Support unions
Steve Bruno
They post lectures by professors from various universities free of charge. It would be interesting to know their business model.
Mahadevan Venkatakrishnan
Good day