Revolutionizing Higher Learning

The internet has continued to change our lives in almost everway possible. The way we communicate, how we meet people, shopping, dating, entertainment. The web offers us endless opportunities to share, learn, and experience in a new way. I often wonder the next big idea someone is going to share with the world via the internet. As a avid reader of WIRED, a communication and technology magazine, I came across an article claiming that the internet is begining to change higher learning forever. The article, "The Stanford Education Experiment" claims, fifty years from now, according to Stanford proffessor Sebastian Thrun, there will be only 10 institutions in the whole world that deliver higher education.

Fifty years is not a long time for higher education to nearly become entirely digital. Two proffessors of Stanford began offering 3 classes online via youtube. The class was free and caused quite a stir in the world of education. An enrollment of 160,000 students with lectures and assignmens posted and autograded, the world has been introduced to the future of higher education. I'm unsure if this will obselete all but 10 universities in the next 50 years but it has the power to offer global education to everyone with an internet connection, something that could change the world into a smarter, more educated global community.

The critics of internet education have argued that the internet could never facilitate certain crucial aspects of traditional classroom education. As Thrun envisioned a youtube for education, he began listing the nine essential components of a university education:
1)Admissions
2)Lectures
3)Peer Interaction
4)Professor Interaction
5)Problem-solving
6)Assignments
7)Exams
8)Deadlines
9)Certification

We have seen online University classes, video-taping of lectures, and online interactive software which serve as stepping stones into a complete digital world of education. There are serious concerns that surround online education as THE way we teach and learn. What do we lose? What are we gaining? Only time will tell as the dive into a digital world of education.