How the Internet is Revolutionizing Education

“Learning is not a product of schooling but the lifelong attempt to acquire it.” -

Albert Einstein

In April 2001, Charles M. Vest, the MIT President at the time, created

OpenCourseWare. It had enabled other teachers and lifelong learners around the world to listen and read

what was being taught at MIT.

5 years later, in April 2006, UC Berkeley announced its plan to put

complete academic courses on Apple’s iTunes U. The school has had well over

120 million downloads since first sharing videos online.

The Web has unlocked the keys to a worldwide virtual school, potentially leveling the playing field for students

around the world.

Open CultureAlmost 5 years old, Open Culture is the

largest database of free cultural and educational media in existence. Open

Culture is edited by Colman who received his PhD from Stanford in

1997.

The site has two dimensions:First, it acts as a portal, collecting

external linksSecond, it includes blog-style

content with 2-3 posts a day of handpicked media bites

Khan AcademyKhan Academy is an online collection

featuring over 2,100 educational videos ranging in intensity

from 1+1=2 to college level calculus and physics.

Every time you work on a problem or watch a video, the site remembers

what you’ve learned and where you’re spending your time.

Academic EarthAcademic Earth is working its way up to being the Hulu of academic videos

and courses. However, they don’t cover audio. Academic Earth features the videos on their site, as opposed to

pushing you directly to iTunes if it’s available.

SkillshareSkillshare is a community marketplace that enables users to learn anything

from anyone. Teachers can host classes anywhere, literally; classes are happening everywhere from NYC to Boston to San Francisco right now.

ScitableScitable is a free science social

network with a peer-reviewed on library built on top of it. The network, which launched in 2009, is a product

of the Nature Publishing Group, one of the largest, most prestigious science

publishers in the world.

It’s dedicated to encouraging students to take part in science education and

science in general, which is a huge problem today.

Skype’s RoleAnd Skype’s global platform and

massive user adoption makes it one of the most influential technologies in

changing the reach of education.

“The Granny Cloud“. A professor of education technology at UK’s

Newcastle University named SugataMitra, decided he could use Skype to

improve literacy and education around the globe by getting 200 story telling Grannies to read to children in India

over Skype.

But can the Internet really replace higher education?

Education is a bubble in a classic sense. To call something a bubble, it

must be overpriced and there must be an intense belief in it.

Housing was a classic bubble, because they were both very overvalued, but there was an incredibly widespread

belief that almost could not be questioned. Probably the only

candidate left for a bubble — at least in the developed world— is education.

If you want to be a fireman, you don’t need to go to graduate school. But if

you want to be an orthodontist, please don’t just watch YouTubes and practice

pulling out cavities on your dog.

Thank you!!!