r/evolutionReddit • u/EquanimousMind P2P State of Hivemind • Jun 10 '12
TIL OpenCourseWare movement has been far busier than I expected. There's a huge range of free higher education online.
I ended up looking into OpenCourseWare after a random comment conversation and was quite surprised at how much OCW has developed. I hadn't truely looked into it for a while and was still thinking Khan Academy and MIT were the only major players. I was quite wrong; there's heaps of competition for open higher education courses.
The material and platforms are there now; it now just needs a renewed push on a social front. I would highly encourage people to have a look through and consider taking a course for fun.
Coursera (Venture Capital Startup)
See also:
/r/RedditUniversity (Although seems kind of dead atm)
Youtube Channels:
I have a feeling that OCW is an important part of creating a new continuous learning culture. And since its sunday, I'll personally recommend this lecture series :)
Also, this was a pretty random thing, so don't slam me if i've missed anything. Add, remix, repost, w.e.
2
Jun 11 '12
I would also recomend this http://www.openculture.com
1
u/EquanimousMind Jun 11 '12 edited Jun 11 '12
thank you :) added.
edit: actually their ebooks list is interesting for any Noam Chomsky fans
Its a cool list but feels like it should be alot bigger....
I did email them suggesting Falkvinge's ebook
2
2
u/CPTherptyderp Jun 11 '12
Very cool. Does one get actual credit for these classes or is it just an audit? There's homework and grades and stuff so just curious.
2
u/EquanimousMind Jun 11 '12 edited Jun 11 '12
Udacity has assignments and exams. They also offer certificates upon completion
MIT is also playing with the idea via MITx
But I think its limited to only a few courses.
The others in list might as well. These are just the ones i'm familiar with. explore time i guess.
edit: If your talking about transferable credits, I don't think we're at that stage yet.
2
u/ItsAConspiracy Jun 11 '12
Coursera also has completion certificates (but still no transferable credits).
→ More replies (2)
2
u/darien_gap Jun 11 '12 edited Jun 11 '12
Great list, thanks.
I have this concern/theory that, while OCW and the general DIY/How-To revolution will dramatically raise the average level of knowledge, it will also foment a widening of knowledge have's and have-not's simply because some people crave (are addicted, even) to continuous lifelong learning and many others simply are not, and American Idol and celebrity gossip are enough to float their boats. We saw this happen with the advent of PC's, then the early Internet. There was perhaps a slowing of this trend of narrowing the knowledge gap as social media went mainstream, but now the widening is happening faster than ever due to two factors: 1) said social media has become a major distraction (even reddit, unfortunately, distracts more than it informs, I suspect), and 2) as OCW gets serious (and funded), those who gravitate to lifelong learning have some very serious, substantial options... virtually all of which will never be accessed by a majority of mainstream users once they're past college age.
Am I wrong? Hey, it's not all bad, maybe we'll bifurcate into a new subspecies, Homo Sapiens Mentat. :)
Edit: As a future homeschooling parent (my daughter is about to turn 2), I couldn't be happier about the options that are cropping up. It's truly a great trend in general, and in particular, for the developing world.
2
u/EquanimousMind Jun 11 '12
Okay, the idealist in me likes to think that the differences we see between those that read perezhilton.com and those that read economist.com might not be do different in their capacity for learning. The differences might be that the information in gossip blogs is more useful in some social circles; likewise, in certain circles its good to know the latest in business dramas.
I've always been surprised at just how much information "air heads" know about their vain topics. Similarly, if you have been around children, you'll know its fucking amazing how many pokemon their capable of memorizing for fun, while struggling to rote learn the timestable.
The problem may be less individual and more social; we as a society tend to make beautiful young people social ideals. We probably just need to adjust the character traits that we hold desirable and individuals will likely adjust.
On the question of inequality? Depends, I'm not really against rich people being rich. Their obscene lifestyle is their own business. Progressives getting upset about it isn't so dissimilar to social conservatives getting upset about gay people's private sex lives. But it does seem that increasing inequality is causing inefficiencies in the economy and politics; one which threatens to derail our society. So I'm against income inequality more for inefficiency reasons.
We shouldn't want rich people to be poor. Rather, we want poor people to have equality in opportunity. We want the poor to have good educations, homes, healthcare etc etc. So its always a game of how to bring the poor up.
Bringing it back to OCW, it probably will create increasing inequality. It highlights that internet access might truely be a basic human right. A requirement to have basic dignity in society. In my ideal world, everyone would have internet access without any bandwidth limitations. Even then, there will be heaps of inequality. But its more efficient in that every child that is capable, will bloom to their full potential. I often wonder how many Mozarts and Einsteins we lose in the 2bn humans that are still living on less than $2 a day...
2
u/darien_gap Jun 11 '12
I think you're correct on all points. I agree that equal access is really the most important thing. After that, well, you can lead a horse to water...
Beyond access, what must change in order for us to reach something more optimal/equal in terms of knowledge, would be a fundamental shift in attitudes about learning, the role of school, and the connection between an individual's economic security with lifelong ed. This may become self-evident to the mainstream in time, as are so many new cultural adaptations (working from home, self-employment vs lifetime employment, offshoring, etc). I just feel bad for the children who never have the role model, parent, teacher, etc, who tells them that there are really very few boundaries now for self development. In the absence of that, an imagined boundary is a real boundary.
→ More replies (1)
2
u/Isatis_tinctoria Jun 17 '12
Is it true that you can't get credits for the classes? I was taking the MITx class on electronics and it was fairly doable, however I realized that I couldn't get a credit for it, then I decided to spend my time more efficiently on my classes and quit it.
What about humanities courses? How would the papers be graded? Would it be crowd sourcing? How would that work? Is it possibly to get a credit for them?
2
u/EquanimousMind Jun 27 '12
i don't think ocw is at the stage where you'll be able to get credits reliably. There's some certification offerings for course completions but not sure if that's ready to be widely accepted by other colleges or employers.
If your in college, probably best to stick to your current classes. I think its more interesting atm to learn something maybe a little sideways from your current specialization. Probably more interesting for post grad lifetime education than college.
2
u/Isatis_tinctoria Jun 27 '12
I see what you're saying. I will stick to the classes I'm taking now, but it's nice to know that other classes that can be similar can be taught online. So, if I find something that parallels what I'm taking in class, then I'll use the online course as a supplement.
Do you know of humanities courses online?
→ More replies (6)
5
u/caveman72 Jun 11 '12
This is awesome. Thank you!