01-08-2013, 06:02 PM
There is that famous Emerson quote about education: "I pay the schoolmaster, but it is the school boys who educate my son."
Anyone's analysis as to a battle between traditional university education and forays into online education has to take into account that the most important part of university education is the recipe of peers, social chemistry, ritual, bonding, ideas, conversation, advice, tradition, passion, social groups, physical environment... And carrying forward those peers through your life as friends and colleagues.
We are simply talking about two separate products here. To even call one of them the "Lite" version of the other would be a great exaggeration. I don't think that there will be erosion of the "real" university experience by the giving away of a small sliver of it.
Anyone's analysis as to a battle between traditional university education and forays into online education has to take into account that the most important part of university education is the recipe of peers, social chemistry, ritual, bonding, ideas, conversation, advice, tradition, passion, social groups, physical environment... And carrying forward those peers through your life as friends and colleagues.
We are simply talking about two separate products here. To even call one of them the "Lite" version of the other would be a great exaggeration. I don't think that there will be erosion of the "real" university experience by the giving away of a small sliver of it.