Your own “AUDACITY OF HOPE”: It could be FREE or very cheap!

With the high cost of a college or university education, I hope the education-vested interests won’t act like those in the oil industry who in various ways have held down, temporarily, the technology that’s supposed to liberate us from the energy crisis.  The merger of the concepts of a cheap or free online university, iTunes University, the power of YouTube and smart cellphones, the Discovery Center, the Learning Annex, and the world wide web would be more difficult to push back.  I think that the proper structuring and accreditation of an educational process that we now call online education will gain popularity and, hopefully, become cheaper.  I don’t think those who charge an arm and a leg to provide online education could hold the dikes of expensive online courses much longer with the rather novel concept of a University of the People proposed by Shai Reshef, the Israeli entrepreneur behind the idea (see previous blog entry).

Many skeptics?  As usual for a rather new concept, especially one that threatens the pocketbooks of vested financial interests in higher education.  But as the cost of obtaining an education becomes a huge family issue, especially in an economic downturn such as most of the world is experiencing, I hope that the pressure keeps up for government regulators and academics to come to grips with the realization of such an audacious concept as a cheap/free University of the People.

The University of the People already exists but with an inauspicious start.  However, the New York Times quotes Mr. Reshef as saying, “We know that online peer-to-peer teaching works. Putting it all together, we can make a free university for students all over the world, anyone who speaks English and has an Internet connection.”

Your internet-connected PC and/or your smart cellphone have just shrunked the world and empowered you with an “audacity of hope”!