Bob CollinsBummed by the high cost of education?
Perhaps the answer is a college education, that doesn’t require you to go through nonsense of being “accepted” by a higher institution.
Harvard and MIT have announced “edX,” an online platform for college education that is being billed as the biggest thing in education since the printing press. Hyperbole? Maybe. But, still…
“It will move beyond the standard model of online education that relies on watching video content and will offer an interactive experience for students,” MIT says in an online FAQ. “And the technology will be open-source; other universities will be able to leverage the innovative technology to create their own online offerings.”
Is there a downside here? Would high school seniors, knowing that can get a college education without first having to try to impress the college they want to “get into,” treat their final years differently?
Here’s today’s news conference…
MIT, for its part, is already providing some courses for free online, which makes it possible for some of us to admit out loud “we don’t get it,” without the embarrassment.
Still, the possibilities are endless here. What would the student loan crisis be if we didn’t have to actually go away to college? And when does the debate begin over whether the kids that do are subsidizing the ones who don’t?
