31–40 of 188 posts
We've already gone through an entire cycle of technology-driven higher education disruption... ever heard of an online degree? Many such online schools have made billions and lost it again by now. Separately, the accreditation scheme upholds a high barrier to entry for disruptors. Specifically, a school must be accredited (gatekept by the US Ed Dept) for matriculating students to be eligible for government financial…
Education in itself doesn't need disrupting. If anything, it needs stability.
>> I am the opposite of a handy person, and I had no idea how to deal with this myself. But I Googled. And sure enough, there are multiple YouTubers operating in the home appliance repair space with sufficient specificity and dummy-friendliness that I was able to fix it. As an Engineer, I have had to explain this to countless people... a mechanic is not a mechanical engineer. An electrician, is not an electrical engi…
I asked the electrician wiring my house to not put the phone wires through the same holes as the A/C wires. He asked why. I said because induction will put a 60 cycle hum in the phone wires. He had no idea what that was. I fired him and did the phone wires myself.
When I had a house generator installed (long story) the electrician wanted to run the 12V battery charge line through the same conduit as the A/C. I said wouldn't inductive coupling put 120V on the battery charger? He had no idea what I was talking about. I was unable to explain it to him, and just worked with him to change the design.
Electricians know the code, the rules, can figure out the right wire size from a chart, and how to do things without getting electrocuted. Step outside of that, and they have no idea.
I've worked in the ed-tech space for years and am good friends with many of the early pioneers. Most of the capturable value in education is signal of acquired knowledge and other factors. I'll address the knowledge signaling first. It has been possible for a century to self-study to the equivalent of a bachelor's degree using textbooks but it is very difficult to verify in a reasonable amount of time whether someone…
It seems then that the technical challenge is certification/assessment. Here, AI could play a role. If a machine can interactively and dynamically have a “conversation” with a person, that is randomised/unique and responsive to the student, all to assess how much they understand a topic, that’d probably do it. Combine it with a certain degree of oversight and random checking and provisions for review/appeal from “actual experts”, and you’d still have something that should scale pretty well beyond the university monopoly.
An additional factor is the importance of cultural/mainstream perception. There’s a lot of “hacking” or gaming of the university assessment system, especially if you contrast the reality with the lofty and important goals of education and edification. I’d be interested to know how many, having gone through the system, really put that much faith in the quality of the “certificate”. I’ve certainly heard stories of some people/institutions wishing to also look at high school or secondary college results because they’re less likely to be “gamed” (though I have no idea how common at all this is).
The article's title is a rhetorical question with answer that ends in: "Motivation and self-discipline are valuable commodities, and an in-person instructor can help provide them."
Among other things. Like being able to clarify things immediately and succinctly instead of having to open yet another tab that turns into a rabbit hole distraction.
However, with anything that remotely smells like it's close to the technology field? Any clarification you might get, is probably 10 years out of date. At best.
I've worked in the ed-tech space for years and am good friends with many of the early pioneers. Most of the capturable value in education is signal of acquired knowledge and other factors. I'll address the knowledge signaling first. It has been possible for a century to self-study to the equivalent of a bachelor's degree using textbooks but it is very difficult to verify in a reasonable amount of time whether someone…
State schools have a really unique potential here. There are many now that will confer an on-campus bachelors diploma for 100% remote degrees. The coursework is equally rigorous, administered by a single professor with small class sizes, and the exams are proctored. Any attempt at cheating can be easily snuffed out in this environment. MOOCs are a dead end in terms of providing this. But a state school is a respectable degree and I really hope they’ll extend this to STEM subjects soon.
I think this absolutely misses the mark on the two most critical factors. Number 1: *exposure to and interaction with a community of peers engaged in personal improvement in the same manner*
I can read Aristotle and Mills and Kant on my own in my living room; but this is not the same as being part of a book club (or a college course) reading these texts and discussing them. Finding positions, explaining them to your peers, perhaps defending those viewpoints, listening to others do the same, challenging them on their viewpoints, etc. These are examples of a secondary layer of context and understanding of a subject that is inherently not replicable in isolated learning.
I have a friend who deadlifts over 750 lbs. Do you think he goes to Planet Fitness and hops on the elliptical for 20 minutes and then goes home? No. He goes to a gym filled with similarly powerful, driven lifters. He discusses training loads, regimens, diet, etc. with his peers. The knowledge transfer between skilled practitioners is critical to master of a craft past a certain point. Sure, almost anyone who lifts for 3 years with even moderate dedication can eventually break 3 plates. But 5 plates? 6? 7? 8?! No, that requires something more: a petri dish for cultivating improvement; a community of similarly motivated individuals.
Number 2: A subject matter expert who can react and interact with you and your peers. Having a SME to highlight what is critical, to deprioritize what is 'cruft', to dispel or correct misunderstandings/misconceptions, to push the depth of the learning/training to a more advanced level; this is a massive advantage that in-person education has over impersonal, technologically-distributed courses.
Sure, some things are easily teachabale over YouTube. One of my favorite examples: Simple mechanical work. I've used YouTube multiple times to supplement my existing knowledge & owner's manual. It's helped me flush brake lines, install oil coolers, replace a water pump, and align headlights. Work like this, that is to say, work that doesn't require a high level of expertise, is easily transferable via YouTube. This is akin to taking notes during a lecture. More complicated work, like... say, dropping an engine, replacing the crankshaft, and remounting the engine is a task that requires a higher skill/knowledge base to perform correctly. I would not trust someone to do that with purely internet-based instruction.
Lastly, I would like to say that I believe scale necessarily diminishes the quality of what is being produced. You cannot teach 4000 students online as well as you can teach 400 in person; and likewise a 400 person lecture is necessarily a lower-quality educational product than a 40 person lecture & follow up socratic seminar.
The article's title is a rhetorical question with answer that ends in: "Motivation and self-discipline are valuable commodities, and an in-person instructor can help provide them."
Among other things. Like being able to clarify things immediately and succinctly instead of having to open yet another tab that turns into a rabbit hole distraction.