Back to Basics
The Minimal Education is here
No, I am not going to talk about how education is a bubble waiting to be deflated or arrange reasons beside bullet points to convince you against a broken system. Yes, I have participated in arguments alike, but today, I am going talk about simple, pure hope the new learning brings with it.
Massive Open Online Courses, popularly abbreviated and pronounced as MOOCs(m-uh-ks) is just an year old but its following is in millions and major publications of the world have reported about it. This means a steady form of education open for all is now a truth and it resides on the Internet.
Apart from contributing to the debate, whether this alternate form of education has an edge over the traditional education, MOOCs holds a promise to elevate average human intellect and help people to rediscover their love for learning. I have finished nine MOOCs, and I have often seen people in their sixties or above elated by this new opportunity to learn and express their joy in the discussion forums. This is the hope that MOOCs imposes on us. It transcends the boundary of conventional education confined to a limited age. It brings quality education to anyone who puts their will on the line to give it a shot. It brings a tomorrow in which a person is more capable than he is today. And that, I think is simply, the ultimate dream of a human — the hope of getting better with time. I believe, MOOCs are the greatest invention after public libraries.
Every iota, every bit of information that passes through us, changes us .
The anatomy of a MOOC encourages self investment. The significant advantages - you can choose your own subjects, devote an amount of time plausible for you, take a course as many times as you want, and take it from anywhere. Some of the most renowned schools teams up with their professors extraordinaire to simulate a one-on-one learning interaction coupled with quizzes which appears in middle of a video lecture to keep a learner engaged. Students get weekly assignments. If the assignments consist of subjective solutions they are reviewed by other fellow students under some guidelines from the instructors. This design of MOOC is contrived to keep students active throughout the process. A student ends up doing more instead of passively participating in long lectures.
The medium off the Internet fails to deliver education to anyone on the planet who would otherwise be very much interested. Internet as a medium has the super power of sharing information throughout the world in milliseconds without any cost for replication. Using it as a medium for distribution of education makes quite sense.
Some institutions have set high standards for education and I have my reverence for them. But still, their scope is limited in offering you a degree in particular disciplines. A degree alone cannot suffice one’s hunger for learning and it shouldn’t. Though it may sound philosophical, MOOCs are about restoring the true value to education. Yes, you may have a functional career because of a degree, but education is more than a means to hook you up with a job. It is one of the principle ingredient to sustain healthy human intellect which influences our decisions and shapes the future of mankind. At different points in life we may cultivate different interests. MOOCs have a tremendous capability to nourish the curiosity in us and dare I say, even make ‘curiosity’ a sustainable habit.
The singular act of education as in acquiring knowledge is minimal. It is never about traveling long distances, or taking exams, or worrying about admissions. If today, someone wants to learn music or calculus or just want to confirm on the thought that he always had a philosopher in him, he can do it without the hassle of finding a college and paying the fees.
Those who are nihilistic about technology, this is what technology can do, make you the person you always wanted to be. MOOC is a fine exemplar of human mind leveraging technology to deliver a revolution. It has successfully democratized education, a chief attribute to human existence and establishment.
