In our HESA 761 class, we are working on a group project on epistemological frameworks. Our group (Yolanda, Jason, and me) is working through Positivism/Logical Positivism/Logical Empiricism. We decided to explore resources outside of the scholarly article box (that felt sacrilegious to type, but I admit it, we used Google). Yolanda sent a link to a lecture series on YouTube by Dr. Jason J. Campbell, an Assistant Professor of Conflict Resolution & Philosophy at Nova Southeastern University. The lecture happens in approximately 10 minute sections over the course of 7 videos. It is VERY rare that my attention span will hold a YouTube video longer than 2 (maybe 3) minutes, but something about Dr. Campbell worked for me. Because of this, I decided to do a little search engine "research" on him just to see what possessed him to do a 70 minute lecture of Positivism's principles and applications for an entirely web-based audience. After all, people pay $22,500 a year to learn from this man and his colleagues.
I found the answer. On his website (linked above), Dr. Campbell articulates his life's mission: "I have dedicated my life to free global education. My youtube channel is a reflection of the enormous effort and time that I spend researching and preparing free virtual lectures for a global audience. I believe that education is power, which is precisely why I am committed to the idea of social empowerment through education." Right there, for all the world (or at least the 30% with internet access), are free lectures on genocide, philosophy, research paradigms, general human rights, and more. For me, seeing someone walk the proverbial walk so publicly and without an attention-seeking agenda feels so very refreshing. But then again, he also has a PayPal donation logo on his site.
This all got me thinking about Bill Gates' statement from last year in which he basically said the internet will replace formal education by 2015, "Five years from now on the web for free you’ll be able to find the best lectures in the world. It will be better than any single university." He also talks about functional credit for watching lectures online. Gates never earned his undergraduate degree and is the exception to the rule on success after dropping out, but he may have a point on this one. If the best and brightest professors from around the globe united on a YouTube channel to share their brilliance AND they made it free--well, can you even imagine the possibilities? Free, global education for 30% of the world's population is pretty powerful.
If this vision comes to fruition by 2015, or even 2030, the impact on higher education will be significant. Aside from the degree itself, the possibility exists for traditional institutions of higher education to lose their value or become completely moot, particularly for non-traditional, lifelong learners. Should we try to jump on this bandwagon before it's too late? If so, how will traditional higher education even go about this process? If we are a mature industry as we read in Levine (2001), is this the ticket back onto the growth train?
Very interesting post, Jill! As the world becomes more connected, we may indeed be moving toward this kind of model. Think of all the knowledge that is currently shared on social media sites (beyond vacation pictures, that is.)
ReplyDeleteThere are YouTube videos showing you how to do an infinite number of things, thus adding to the collective public education. Can university lectures, and a full university education, be that far behind? I don't think so.