It feels like stealing.
Here is a video straight from You Tube’s new education channel, which was launched about two weeks ago. It is a short clip from the University of Minnesota, which features one professor’s view of the science of kleptomania. For FREE, you can now sit in on hundreds of full lectures from a growing list of universities and their curricula. Want to learn the physics at play in the movie Watchmen? Care to dabble in Shakespeare? Curious about the limits of rugby headwear? Youtube.com/edu will invite you into one of thousands of lecture halls or give you a personal, one-on-one tutorial. With all this free education available online, where does college and the cost of a degree rub up against the ubiquity of technological innovation?
Ha! you say, colleges and universities will never give away their product free. There is simply too much $$$ at stake. Sure, and that is exactly what use to be said about music, newspapers and, now, the imploding world of publishing. One wonders, for a moment, if capitalism is coming full circle, a global dialectic that is pushing us toward a new socialism, where freemium business models prevail, and where college sheepskins are plucked at no cost, straight from the internet. Paradigm shifts happen unexpectedly, sometimes precipitously. Online college courses and a few online colleges already exist. What’s to prevent Harvard, Stanford or Purdue (all on the new channel) from pushing the classroom limits of a BA degree entirely onto the web? Nearly 200 colleges have already done so. Perhaps the future of higher ed will be just that, campus-centered Master and Doctorate programs, while the internet services the two and four year programs.
Where does this leave you as the cash spigot for your child’s college aspirations. Well, for the most part, nowhere at the moment, though there are certainly some related, money saving approaches available right now:
- online courses
- online degrees
- online colleges
All of these are distinct possibilities, though not all, except perhaps online courses, are less expensive alernatives. Take some time to view these at Elearners. If nothing else, it will open your eyes to all the possibilities for a college education. And, take your time. Especially make sure any online college is fully accredited by the U.S. Department of Education, and that it is well-regarded after graduation (not all are.).
Now, I think I’ll write a new book, a variation of Abbie Hoffman’s 1971 anti-establishment polemic. I think I’ll call it “Steal This Education.”
Share your thoughts. I’d love to hear them!
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