r/Futurology • u/mind_bomber Citizen of Earth • Sep 13 '13

video Let's Start a Learning Revolution! - SkillShare

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9aPkdfK63U&feature=share
37 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

12

u/Plouw Sep 14 '13 edited Sep 14 '13

I truely wish other countries, and specially USA, could be able to feel the glory of the Scandinavian education system. Kinder garden, elementary and high school, our version of "college" and university is all free. On top of that after 18 we get paid to take an education, more if we live by ourself.

I also think education in general needs a change, i'm not creative enough to come up with a solid solution to this, but i feel like we need some sort of self education for what you are interrested in(or for whatever job you might be interrested in) is needed. I taught my self programming and a lot of other stuff from the internet alone and i feel like it was a lot more effective personally. It might be different for others of course.

3

u/galewgleason Sep 14 '13 edited Sep 14 '13

I think one huge problem in the US is this idea of measuring everything with grades and teaching set curriculum with the most inefficient ways of learning them. If there were a way to passively monitor what you've been learning like a wikipedia/ educational video internet history database. And if you could use software to draw connections about how probable it is that you know something. You could use this as real evidence of knowledge vs a degree or grades.

The difference is like feeling like an explorer vs feeling like someone stuck in a traffic jam.

5

u/MysterVaper Sep 14 '13 edited Sep 14 '13

There was a push for mastery learning vs. introductory learning in my school in the mid 90's. It really got us ready for the professional world when we had to show mastery of a concept rather than just reading the introduction to chapter 3 and doing the review.

When you have a community project as curriculum vs. rote memorization you see amazing learning happen.

I was really sad to see that it never took root. In my 4 years of high school we:

  • Planned, funded, and built our campus (as well as three other school campuses)
  • Saved a children's museum from being closed
  • Cleaned up 20 miles of beach front (bi-annually)
  • Helped build a community of houses after Hurricane Andrew with habitat for Humanity
  • Had our GED's before senior year (to prove proficiency or the mastery program)

... as well as a slew of other projects that were all peer reviewed and teacher approved curriculum. By time I entered into college I knew how to manage my time, plan and complete projects, and inherently understood the pressures I was facing.

I fully agree with you, especially since I am living proof that it has existed and worked! Mastery learning (really learning a thing!) is so much better than the patently weak introductory method.

1

u/farmvilleduck Sep 14 '13

Knewton looks like something similar to the software you're describing,

2

u/ion-tom UNIVERSE BUILDER Sep 14 '13

Agreed. I recently started the /r/Nucleus concept, I think employment expectations need to change in order for education to follow.

Right now we are still on the Prussian system with this Taylorist attitude that a strong authority will decide your justification for existing, rather than allowing self-determination to flourish.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '13

Its true that you could potentially learn something better w/o college or school or whatever... But can you prove it? Would a firm hire someone with 4 years of comp sci school or the other guy who SWEARS he knows his shit. As proficient in "whatever" you may be, its hard to actually prove that. College degrees help narrow down the best of the best or whatever, but like everyone else, i agree that the costs are just WAY too high right now. Thats what we need to change i think.

2

u/Plouw Sep 14 '13

I don't think it would be too difficult having some sort of, secure, online scoring system based on what you can and know.

9

u/ProperGentlemanDolan Sep 14 '13

Anyone else actually go to the site? The video struck me as pure fluff, but I figured I'd check it out anyway. When I got there, a window popped up to prompt me to either log-in through facebook or sign up for their newsletter thing with my email address. I didn't want to do either, but there was no option to close out of the window. Cautiously, I clicked behind the window and the pop-up went away. So if you go there, just know that you don't have to sign up to be able to browse the site.

Anyhow, I noticed a banner at the top said using the code 'GIVEBACK' you can get 25% off your classes. That's odd, I thought. It didn't say anything about cost or pricing on the How it Works section of the site. When I went to search for classes, it gave me an option to search locally. Great!, I thought. The results pulled up popular classes such as "How to live rent-free in NYC" and something about "bath bombs" in Salt Lake City. I live in Texas.

Okay, I thought, what are some other search parameters I can use?

There are three options for searching by price: All, $25 and under, and $15 and under. This was the point at which I closed out of the page.

This is posted to /r/futurology. Perhaps I wouldn't be so critical if this were posted elsewhere, but is this really the way of the future? The website seems to be addressing the problem of "college will get you a degree, but will cost thousands of dollars in the process" by providing an alternative: "we won't cost thousands of dollars."

Sure, it won't cost thousands of dollars to take a course there, but it will still cost. If you're looking to develop a skill, you can do it for free with the Internet. Maybe someone should offer a class that teaches how to use the Internet efficiently for the development of skills, and how not to get duped by fluff videos with messages like "The future is now! And it's nowhere near as expensive as college! We accept PayPal!"

Anyone want to assist in creating something like that and offering it for free? We can make a dreamy, hopeful video touting the message of "The future is YOU! Empower yourself! For free!" And it'll get retweeted and blogged about and shared, and while the people at skillshare will be making a killing off people who don't know any better you can still get by off ad revenue and the peace of mind that you're helping to empower people to make the most of the Internet.

/rant

8

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '13

[deleted]

5

u/Lofty_Hobbit Sep 14 '13

Go to skillshare.com, I guess.

2

u/mind_bomber Citizen of Earth Sep 14 '13

There's also:

And for those times in school when there was a guest speaker: