Bill Gates: In Five Years The Best Education Will Come From The Web

[tacobell]

Bill Gates: In Five Years The Best Education Will Come From The Web
by MG Siegler on Aug 6, 2010


Gates thinks the idea of young adults having to go to universities in order to get an education is going to go away relatively soon. Well, provided they’re self-motivated learners.

“Five years from now on the web for free you’ll be able to find the best lectures in the world,” Gates said at the Techonomy conference in Lake Tahoe, CA today. “It will be better than any single university,” he continued.

He believes that no matter how you came about your knowledge, you should get credit for it. Whether it’s an MIT degree or if you got everything you know from lectures on the web, there needs to be a way to highlight that.

He made sure to say that educational institutions are still vital for children, K-12. He spoke glowingly about charter schools, where kids can spend up to 80% of their time deeply engaged with learning.

But college needs to be less “place-based,” according to Gates. Well, except for the parties, he joked.

But his overall point is that it’s just too expensive and too hard to get these upper-level educations. And soon place-based college educations will be five times less important than they are today.

One particular problem with the education system according to Gates is text books. Even in grade schools, they can be 300 pages for a book about math. “They’re giant, intimidating books,” he said. “I look at them and think: what on Earth is in there?“

According to Gates, our text books are three times longer than the equivalents in Asia. And yet they’re beating us in many ways with education. The problem is that these things are built by committee, and more things are simply added on top of what’s already in there.

Gates said that technology is the only way to bring education back under control and expand it.



I'm going to have to agree with Gates on this one. Depending on the individual, you can get as good if not better education learning on the web; video conferencing, modules, forums, etc. With the price of education rising, more and more people will be looking at an online education as an alternative.

[twitchyzero]

you mean online courses rather than attending lectures? not like they cost any cheaper.

[Harryt]

I've done about 5-6 online classes. I believe all of them had higher marks than most of my classes. I would say Average would be around a B+ or A-.

I don't agree that online will be any better UNLESS your better at being a self learner. Online courses made you learn and read on your own. Where as having a lecture and prof explaining things on the spot can help too.

It's all about personal preference at the end of the day.

[jackmeister]

i think part of the learning process is doing group work and interacting with your fellow classmates. teleconferencing for class is cool but its completely different from actually seeing someone face to face.

this online university thing, if taken for 4 years, could make the person smart but not very social-able

[Harryt]

Originally Posted by jackmeister

i think part of the learning process is doing group work and interacting with your fellow classmates. teleconferencing for class is cool but its completely different from actually seeing someone face to face.

this online university thing, if taken for 4 years, could make the person smart but not very social-able

True but there are lots of jobs where it's all self paced. AKA. not much communication needed to get your job done.

I still think online learning is great, but they need to mix a little of online and going to class in some ways.