The future of higher education?
 

http://www.ted.com/talks/daphne_koller_what_we_re_learning_from_online_educ ation.html

Got it.

Worcester Technical High School.

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I was just looking at Coursera last week along with edx.org (which is created by MIT and Harvard). I found several classes I would like to take. For me, I want to learn new things but not necessarily go back to school. Seems like a good way to do that. On top of that, there are a couple I would like my son to take when he is in high school like the Intro to Solid State Chem. from MIT.

I would also say that there is more to college than just taking a class. There can be a lot gained from sitting in a class and participating in discussions. For that reason, this will never replace a traditional classroom.

"Never let school get in the way of your education." This was said to me long ago by a very wise fellow. Then again, at the time he was living in a yurt in the woods and was visiting my house on a monthly basis...to shower.

As the costs associated with conventional educational delivery methods skyrocket, I think a lot more self-directed study and/or web-based study is inevitable. It is simply a staggering cost to have a huge, well-equipped school in every town in America. The operating costs are enormous. A lot of high schools now are literally like college campuses too - there's an "arms race" between communities to build bigger, more elaborate, more expensive and expansive campus-like schools to attract people to live there. Yes, I really see this happening.

It'd be nice if we dialed back the spending on facilities and personnel and pension obligations and put it into the content of the education, which can be delivered via simple books, online web pages or lectures. Most of the rest is just fluff, IMHO.

"there's an "arms race" between communities to build bigger, more elaborate, more expensive and expansive campus-like schools to attract people to live there."

Aye mate..thar's the rub.....

They go out of their way to attract more students, then they complain the revenue per student does not cover the cost of education so they raise the damn taxes!

School board members and admins should have to follow the economic laws of the real world. No, they say, "It's not a problem...we'll just raise the taxes."

The main reason college costs are "skyrocketing" is that taxpayers are no longer paying much of the tuition costs, making public universities more like private ones.