Here I roasted the current situation of traditional education. It barely scratches the surface. I want to add that this is a lightly researched and very general hot take. There are outliers that are doubling down on the future of their institutions and are investing in it. Kudos to them.
Some structure on the areas I want to cover in the series related to education:
a. What is wrong with Zoom as an alternative to IRL lectures?
b. With all the tech we have available today. Why does education look pretty much the same as it has for centuries?
c. The pre-COVID issues with traditional education.
d. What education may look like soon.
I’ll go over the different posts in the series and consolidate a (more) researched take on education systems going forward.
Imagine how life would be if we would still be using horses and carriages as means of transportation. Or using dial-up for internet connection. Or relying our entertainment needs on cable TV. It’s hard. Our daily lives are made easy by technology. Pressing a button and getting your favorite dish delivered to your doorstep relies on a wide “stack” of underlying technologies. It’s hard to picture our lives without them now.
Consider how education has been left behind for a second. It looks pretty much the same. Students go to a physical location to attend lectures from a professor. Said location is where they do homeworks, papers, prepare and take exams. Relatively unchanged.
If we have access to the internet. Why is education still an IRL activity?
How much value are you getting from your school’s lectures vs. lectures (about the same topic) you find on YouTube, for free? Have you taken MOOCs (on edX or Coursera) that are not offered in your school? Back when we could roam libraries freely: did you visit them for the nice and quiet, or where you actually browsing books for research? Have you paid for courses on Udemy, Domestika, MasterClass?
In other words: how much more educational value are you getting from the internet?
College degrees get you jobs, right? … Right?
Many will argue that colleges failed on that promise. It is safe to assume we attend colleges as an rite of passage to the workforce. But, if students invest 4 years of their time and money (that they likely do not have) to get a job and then they don’t. Do they get their money back? They didn’t pay for unemployment, did they? Schools are not honing the skills in demand in the workforce. There is a massive disconnect of what is taught and what is needed.
In other words: what are you really paying for?
College is not just about the lectures. It’s about the experience. An experience that you just can’t get elsewhere, though?
I made great friends in college. Participated in clubs, sports, and competitions. Enjoyed campus life and student discounts. But, is that behind the value of college? The non-education part of it? And if it plays such a big part, is it not available elsewhere? In college, I attended events where I could find similar-minded people. In and outside of college. Mostly out. I went to meetups, conferences, and seminars. I mostly did so for the the people. For that sense of community. For a tribe. I met awesome people from all walks of life.
In other words: are college experiences replaceable?
Wake up at 6:30. Go upstairs, to the deck, to meet your co-living housemates and your yoga instructor. Shower and take your computer to the lounge. Where you prepare today’s content over breakfast. Today you have a live VR lecture on game theory at 10:00 and after that I start my Internet Economy project of taking local cafés and shops online. You’ll study their needs first and then I’ll prepare a workflow to spin up websites and apps for them to increase their revenue. The course goal is to grow the city’s economy by $50K each month. You’ve been studying Chinese social commerce apps and will be helping your friend and housemate, Clara, on a prototype for the artists in the house to sell their work. A fellow across town is pitching her rolling fund and some founders she invested in are hosting an AMA. You’re kind of busy at the time but can catch it online and invest on the spot. You’re excited about your mental models course. You have a monthly meetup with the professor and where you discuss learnings and project outcomes. There’s also a weekly online office hours, which can also be joined at the tonari room at the co-living, but some discussions are just better IRL.
Here’s to getting closer to that future in 2021.
Toodle loo
