Saturday, October 24, 2009
Education as an end in itself: the thirst for knowledge is alive and well online.
It is now possible to educate yourself with access to the highest quality resources from the top institutions for free and it is catching on.
Around this time of year many 100s of young people are struggling with university application forms and interviews explaining why they want to study their chosen subject in greater depth at degree level. This preparation is taking place in the context of debate over funding for higher education and recent graduates complaining that their degree has not led them to a well paid, interesting job. Some commentators have argued that making the link between jobs and degrees more explicit than ever before could result in the status and value of universities as places where scholarship and the pursuit of knowledge are goals valued in their own right, slipping.
Meanwhile, there is a huge growth in the use of educational facilities and resources by indivuadls not necessarily related to study for degree courses or other qualifications through podcasts, YouTube and other web-based technologies suggesting that the pursuit of knowledge and study for its own sake is actually alive and thriving. A further exciting feature is that most of this learning is free for the learner to download, subscribe to and use.
The materials available are wide ranging both in subjects and depth of study. For example Oxford University has had over a million downloads of its lectures since first making them available on itunesU just over a year ago. The material on offer includes debates, interviews, seminars as well as lectures. Many other universities are also offering lecture podcasts free via itunesU. It is a mark of the popularity of the academic content on itunes that Apple have recently made the itunesU one of the most prominent icons. The principle behind the podcasts by universities across the world including Cambridge, Yale, UCL, Stanford as well as Oxford is that the material is donated by the academics enabling it to be freely accessible legally. (Creative Commons licensing)
Other institutions such as The Tate are also providing free lectures and other podcasts on itunesU.
YouTube has also increased the prominence of academic material, with a new Education Strand with material from 45 universities around the world freely available. YouTube EDU.
The Open University has created an online learning space called OpenLearn where users can listen to lectures and other resources and build a study programme for themselves. This can be an alternative to an OU degree or a sample to try self-directed study in an area before committing to a course and fees and costly materials.
The OpenLearn website also has discussion forums and rating for all the resources and courses available. The Labspace area encourages sharing and developing of educational materials by allowing users to adapt and reuse all resources and to collaborate with others to edit and improve those available.
The opportunities for free supported self-study in an almost unlimited choice of subjects have probably never been greater. And that self-study can now include lectures from the most highly regarded experts and specialists all for free. Combine this with the use of social networking sites to form communities of learners and networks of support and an individual can choose to study any subject and find top quality resources and opportunities to share their learning and ideas with other people pretty much immediately and for free.
Judging by the speed at which the content and use of these new resources has grown, learning is being sought and valued, maybe it is the qualifications which are not.
To listen to an interesting presentation about the experience of setting up podcasts at Oxford University click here.