University 2.0

 (8/31/15)

“You only have to know one thing: You can learn anything. For free. For everyone. Forever.”  Khan Academy

The part seven: The Right Stuff, from Thomas Friedman The World is Flat resonated quite well to my concern on how to make education relevant but still accessible for all. Education has been functioned as tool for social mobilization. It is the way for people to achieve better live and actualize their potential. Unfortunately, most of our traditional education institutions are failing to provide that need, including university. It has become more costly, but the outcome is questionable. This essay discusses on how globalization in form of information technology has shaped the way we learn things specifically in term of providing equal opportunities for everyone to gain a meaningful education.

The technological innovation has enabled people to gain more information from everywhere and faster through various ways. For instance, students currently learn more through search engines and social media than listening to a lecture in a classroom. Many of them travel and move to foreign lands to study languages instead of studying in language lab or merely conducting a short excursion. Can we utilize it for improving our learning?

Globalization generates alternatives to traditional or conventional ways of doing things, including education. I would say that there is one significant effect of globalization on education: it democratizes it. It enable people to access and share knowledge. Moreover, individuals can independently pursue their interest in learning in ways that suit best with our circumstances.  I would like to start by telling two following stories to illustrate that statement.

Dale J. Stephens dropped out from school at the age of twelve and went on self-directed learning since then. While his peers attended middle school and high school, Stephens took college classes, started businesses, lived in France, worked on political campaign, and helped build a library. He attended Hendrix College briefly, but he was unschooled in most of his life. He sees that college education is not sufficient teaching him the 21st century skills he knew he would need to succeed in the professional world. In his book, Hacking Your Education, he argues that there are many ways to educate ourselves besides spending thousand dollars on college education. Drop out from college is not the end of learning. He also founded uncollege.org as a sharing platform of resources for self-directed learners. Uncollege uses experience-based training method to teach them the practical skills they need in their life and professional carrier. Not only for unschooled, uncollege also provides program for active students. One of the most interesting program of uncollege is Gap Year. Students are encouraged to take a year off from their school and do travelling, set up business project, or internship.

The second story is the story of Maya Frost and her family. After 10 years living in small university town near Portland, she and her husband sold everything and moved to Mexico. Since then, they have lived in many different places while managed to guide their four daughters to high school and college in alternative (and low-cost) ways. Her book, The New Global Student, provides an answer of why international programs fail to provide a truly global education. She lists tips and strategies for any American student can get relevant but still affordable global education.

One may argues that those stories are not unique. Homeschooling and un-schooling movement have been around for centuries. Indeed, it has been significant part of American society experience. But the common feature of uncollege and the global student, which is not found in previous practice is on their practical suggestions on how to seize opportunities provided by globalization. They both unsatisfied by the current practice of school system, but they do not spent their energy merely criticizing its philosophical foundation. They agree on the importance of global education, the importance of relevant skills, creativity and mastering technology. Maya Frost does not suggest theoretical abstraction of education, but practical experience of how global education should. For instance, Taeko (their oldest daughter) spent her junior year of high school in Chile, entered liberal arts college in Canada, spent summer working virtually as research assistant for Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation while living in tropical island, graduated with BS in psychology at nineteen and finishing master degree in urban public health while working at a nonprofit community health clinic at Harlem. She and all of her sisters experienced this global education with arguably lower cost compares to other students who go to college through conventional way.  All in all, globalization enables Stephen and Frost family to seek alternatives that will serve them with the same result but lesser cost.

Of course, college and university are still important institutions in our society, and will continue to be so. But drop out from college does not necessarily mean the end of learning especially when education cost is too high for the most individuals in the society. Globalization creates effect what so called 'democratization of education'. Many people cannot afford to pay the tuition of Ivy League universities, but now thanks to globalization even poor people in developing countries now can access it, for example through the various course of MIT provided by MIT open courseware.

One might argue that online learning cannot replace classroom learning. It is true. But for majority of people on the planet, being in the same room with professor is a luxury thing. And for some it is not a practical way to do due to the spatial distance. Globalization exists by not diminishing the traditional spatial relation, but it reconfigure and transform it. Even in liberal art education which requires intensive interaction between teacher and student, still can be done through online. Michael S. Roth in his book Beyond the University: Why Liberal Education Matters, mentions on how his students adapt the new environment and manage their learning through a new method of learning. According his own assessment, the online learning is still enable them to gain similar depth with traditional method. Hundreds of free education portal are now available in the internet. Khan Academy is worth to mention because it addresses specifically the knowledge gap between developed and developing world. You don’t have to be rich to learn things. All you need is discipline and good internet connection. Altogether, the motto of Khan Academy cleverly sums up how globalization shape our way of learning. You can learn anything. For free. For everyone. Forever.

Further remarks University 2.0: The most significant shift on education provided by globalization is not on the question of access (download side) but on the sharing feature (upload side). The democratization process does not merely mean everyone can access it despite their economic capability, but also everyone can share the knowledge. This feature differentiate the new school style or university 2.0 with the old one, university 1.0. Public credential is becoming more important than degree certificate. College and university institution have to reform and adapt itself in order to stay relevant. As Jeff Jervis discusses in What Would Google Do, college should become a platform of collaboration as google does with the internet instead of being the source of knowledge.  Google does not provide all information, but it creates space for exchanging it. For instance, the google map are added, modified, evaluated by countless number of people. Creating platform is the key word. The world has changed so much, so why not university?