

Bill Gates: Forget university, the web is the future for education - kennethchu
http://www.geek.com/articles/news/bill-gates-forget-university-the-web-is-the-future-for-education-2010087/

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systems
I think online learning will grow as a valid option, but i don't think it will
ever replace traditional universities.

The University experience for many (in my opinion most) is more than just
learning, it's also about social networking, activities, etc ...

Most people still meet in coffee shops, club and sports clubs not in chat
rooms

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csomar
I met almost anyone I chatted with and was in my region (actually they were
only two persons) and I had a business with one that we wouldn't do if we
didn't meet off-line.

Talk with interesting people in your regional Network. And if they/you are
really interesting you'll meet and make things together.

And as you said most people meet in coffee spaces, but the arrangement of the
meeting can be done anywhere else and not only in University.

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drtse4
I don't agree with Bill, hardly all the issues related to the transition from
the current model to something full web-based could be solved in 5 years. I've
personally witnessed from the inside the first experiments with online based
univ teaching here in Italy(maybe not too relevant), and the result had the
word failure plastered all over it. The initial enthusiasm, the progressive
difficulties in keeping the students engaged that could never be addressed(new
media-> unexpected problems) and lastly what i think could be considered a
failure, students with definitely worst degree and that started dropping out.
Quality free material will be increasingly available for sure, but for a
typical student is not easy to maintain the consistency needed to study this
way. Similarly, universities will have a hard time refactoring their curses to
provide something usable/meaningful/useful.

What instead is already evident is the success of web-based courses not
related to degrees, small packeted courses on a single subject that target
young or not so young adults that want to learn a new language or other stuff.
As you know there are a lot of interesting start-ups in this area.

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dreaming
It would be a sad day if physical universities were replaced by online
institutions.

University aught not just be a means to an end but a pretty good way to spend
the present.

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itiztv
it will be complementary rather than a replacement IMHO though

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nhebb
Aside from quality of education debate, the migration toward online education
will not get any traction until companies recognize online degrees as
equivalent to brick and mortar degrees. I doubt that will happen within five
years. I have no plans to make my kids the test subjects in this experiment,
and I doubt many other parents will advise their kids against a brick and
mortar degree if they can afford one.

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kragen
To rephrase and reverse astrec's comment: Depends a little on what you hope to
get from University: a vocational qualification or higher learning. People who
are looking for higher learning are already using online resource instead of,
or in addition to, existing universities. People who are looking for
credentials will obviously go where the credentials are.

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astrec
Depends a little on what you hope to get from University: a vocational
qualification or higher learning. He's right on the former, but so, so wrong
on the latter: <insert Stephen Leacock quote here>.

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drtse4
Same thing, different link <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1582402>

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itiztv
<http://www.extension.harvard.edu/>

<http://scpd.stanford.edu/becomeAStudent/deliveryOptions.jsp>

<http://ischool.syr.edu/academics/distance/index.aspx>

do we see a trend here

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dgroves
Spoken like a man whom has never been to university, or maybe a man whom did
not spend much time at one when he was there. The signal to noise ration of
the Internet is just about inverse of what it is at my university.

