Learning, 24x7
Category Management
Yale University has decided to begin posting its courses online. While some other schools (e.g., MIT's OpenCourseWare) have been distributing their curriculum through the Internet, Yale University is actually hosting digital videos of the classes through an 18 month trial of the Open Educational Resources Video Lecture Project. Finally, anyone can fully benefit from the best minds of the Ivy League. Is this is a revolution for education? No, not yet. "The courses cannot be counted toward a Yale degree, and educators say they are no substitute for actual teaching." While it's possible to attend a course, virtually, it is not possible to receive official recognition for any of it. It looks as though Yale University is thinking of Internet distribution as something of a free audit program. Still, if Yale University has not stirred an insurrection, it has certainly redefined the borders for the republic of letters. I do expect to see freely on-line dissemination of university courses to become more common. Partly because showing off their most interesting material is terrific marketing. But, on-line curriculum also answers the question of relevancy in a world of blogs and wikis. I also think the Yale project means something else for us as IT professionals. It signifies a growing expectation for 24x7 learning. Education is no longer an accomplishment that is achieved by a degree or certification. I suspect that over the next 10 years the current vogue which marks technical literacy, will shift more from a static list of abilities, into an attitude and behavior for continual learning. Does it seem too obvious to write about "continual learning?" That's because, as a blog reader, you are already in the vanguard, which, unfortunately, is still a splinter of the IT workforce. You can watch the divide grow. It used to be about the technical have and have-nots, now the tension over IT resources will be between those who are active learners, and those who are passive recipients.
Yale University has decided to begin posting its courses online. While some other schools (e.g., MIT's OpenCourseWare) have been distributing their curriculum through the Internet, Yale University is actually hosting digital videos of the classes through an 18 month trial of the Open Educational Resources Video Lecture Project. Finally, anyone can fully benefit from the best minds of the Ivy League. Is this is a revolution for education? No, not yet. "The courses cannot be counted toward a Yale degree, and educators say they are no substitute for actual teaching." While it's possible to attend a course, virtually, it is not possible to receive official recognition for any of it. It looks as though Yale University is thinking of Internet distribution as something of a free audit program. Still, if Yale University has not stirred an insurrection, it has certainly redefined the borders for the republic of letters. I do expect to see freely on-line dissemination of university courses to become more common. Partly because showing off their most interesting material is terrific marketing. But, on-line curriculum also answers the question of relevancy in a world of blogs and wikis. I also think the Yale project means something else for us as IT professionals. It signifies a growing expectation for 24x7 learning. Education is no longer an accomplishment that is achieved by a degree or certification. I suspect that over the next 10 years the current vogue which marks technical literacy, will shift more from a static list of abilities, into an attitude and behavior for continual learning. Does it seem too obvious to write about "continual learning?" That's because, as a blog reader, you are already in the vanguard, which, unfortunately, is still a splinter of the IT workforce. You can watch the divide grow. It used to be about the technical have and have-nots, now the tension over IT resources will be between those who are active learners, and those who are passive recipients.
- 
