Age of Information - University Vs Youtube - A Response to Ecotrain QOTW...
My father was a firm believer in education and set up RESP for all his kids, so a year after completing high-school I figured I better use it (even though I hated school!).
Because I really enjoyed sports I figured I would take Phys-ed and become a Phys-ed teacher. Well that only lasted a month when I realized that I really didn't want to be tied up in the school systems for my occupation and dropped out. Dad got his money back and I went on life guarding and teaching swimming, occasionally thinking of what I wanted to do with my life. I thought of going to university again to become a marine biologist for I loved deep sea diving and figured I'd move to the coast so I could be a ski-patroller in the winter and as a marine biologist with work where I could go diving in the summer. That idea was soon dropped when I found a job working with horses (another passion of mine) at the race track.)
Now keep in mind when I first went to university it was back in 1975 when there wasn't the internet as we know it.
Fast forward another 20 years...
I had started a tree nursery and wanted to learn everything I could about propagating trees.
I had won a government contract for growing coniferous seedlings for reforestation - a new program to produce those seedlings here in Saskatchewan instead of bringing them in from B.C.
Part of this program was to educate the new growers with the latest information on growing tree seedlings. I learned so much but I was eager to learn more!
The University of Saskatchewan had a propagations class which I enrolled in but I just wanted the information - I didn't want to write exams or anything so I just audited the class.
Doing this I realized that there are much better ways to learn than through sitting in university classrooms - although I did make some good connections!
It's funny when we went on a class outing to a local tree farm and greenhouse the fellow there said he didn't care about a university degree, he would rather hire folks who had a keen interest in growing with some practical knowledge - kind of a funny thing to say to a class of university students, but I did agree with him!
I learn far more with hands on experience, meeting with folks who were already established in what I wanted to learn (having a mentor) and learning online! There is a wealth of information on the internet which you can access right in your home.
My husband, since we got high speed internet, said it is just like having the library right in your own home (the library is where he use to spend a lot of his spare time in the years before the internet). He remarked that you can learn anything online and became a great fan of Youtube!
One more experience with college education -
I took a long distance course (my dad had offered to pay for any secondary education I wanted to take.) I chose long distance learning for I didn't want to go to the city. I found a course through the North Regional college situated in the town closest to me. I loved working with kids and thought about being a school teacher (I needed work that wasn't too physical for I had acquired a spinal cord injury.) After talking to the coordinator at the college about what you actually make being a teacher with all the extra hours you are expected to put in I opted to become an Education Associate which had an hourly wage instead.
There was a lot of book learning in this course. Texts seemed like a bit of a racket - the cost of text books were high and you were required to have the latest edition, even if they had only changed a small bit in the text. Funny, I never looked at my texts again after finishing the course even though I find books a great resource and I have oodles of reference books that I go to quite regularly when I want to look up something plus I like learning from books. I would have chosen much different books to buy with the money I spent on text but I needed the certificate from the course (for employment in that field) so I bit the bullet and bought the texts.
I felt they could have utilized technology much better and given us access to the teacher via live-streaming or in virtual classrooms where you all can be on video or have your voice heard through audio channels.
I do feel our education system is failing our kids and there is far more better ways to learn then by sitting in classrooms. Youtube has become a great resource, for it is open to anyone to share their expertise and this has bought all sorts of new knowledge online!
One Youtube channel that I have learned a tremendous amount from is Dr. Jordan Peterson's channel found at https://www.youtube.com/user/JordanPetersonVideos
He has a lot of his university lectures there. Great use of that technology entwining the university and Youtube!
He wants to take it one step further and start an online university making high quality education available to masses of people.
He figures that the genuine humanities isn't really being taught in the universities so he wants to take it out of the universities and move it online!
Find out more about this...
One more place Youtube has opened doors is with debates or conversations with some of the great thinkers of our time.
I want to share with you a very interesting conversion between two great thinks - Dr. Jordan Peterson and Slavoj Zizek.
The topic was "Happiness: Marxism vs Capitalism" but it was much more than that and it was a wonderful example of people having differing views but being able to communicate, a meeting of minds which is expansive and brings about greater understanding and improvements. They shared their deep thoughts on fundamental matters such as freedom, truth and meaning.
Give it a listen and I'd love to hear your thoughts on the topic and these meeting of minds.
I'm all for improving our minds and our lives by any form it comes in.
Care to join in the conversation with @Ecotrain question this week on University Vs Youtube? Find out more here
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Part of it is that tech moves so fast that education hasnt had a chance to catch up, and part of it is because the whole system is a BUSINESS, and not a very flexible one at that. It takes a lot of creative thinking to come up with an entirely new system and then you have to get everyone on board. Poor teachers are so dead tired just doing what they can to earn a living and are pretty powerless to change anything.
You've had such a life, I love hearing your stories. I reckon the trades are where unis are totally redundant, but they haven't got as much funding here as tertiary ed does, yet, if you do teritary ed here you are 150,000 grand BEHIND someone who's done a trade/apprentinceship - isn't that crazy!
@porters, I really do enjoy your stories, you've got so much to share and I appreciate your perspective on this.
Every teacher I talk to says the same thing @riverflows! The system is so archaic and all the old fat cats are so comfortable that change takes forever. I know teachers do their best with the resources they have and many go above and beyond to compensate and give the kids the best until they burn out. I have a lot of respect for teachers.
I cherish the internet and libraries for the wealth of knowledge you can absorb for free. I even have some uni textbooks. Not all of us need classrooms to learn. People used to apprentice for all sorts of things, learning by doing, learning from people who'd been doing those things all their lives and it worked. We lost out on so much when this sort of rich and practical education fell to the wayside and education turned into a disconnected highly controlled mega-business.
Uni is NOT for everyone and I wish they would stop pushing ALL kids into it or telling them that "You can be anything you want" because ... it really isn't true for most. It would be better that they know what the outcome could be because they should be aware of the debt and frustration that can follow their choice. There are a lot of grads stuck working at Tim Hortons selling donuts here in Canada. Very bleak. Had they had their eyes wide open they might have chosen a path with a strong future instead. A lot of my friends never did get a job/career in the sector that they'd studied and endded up having the start at the bottom in some other job which is so hard and they are also struggling to raise families and pay off that crazy debt. My son's friends are in similar situations so it is only getting worse.
I'm in total agreement with you there @walkerland - not to push it on kids but to open up other doors to garner an education and develop valuable in demand skills that will allow you to make a decent living and not be burdened with a massive debt! That debt is just insane and putting kids behind the eight ball!
I went to a conference once where they had some amazing stuff for educating our kids but they said it would take at least 5 years to get it implemented and then it would be somewhat obsolete!
Why does it always have to be about the money - making a business out of educating our young folks, yikes!
I do feel for the teachers for so many of them really want to make a difference but as you say they get tired out just from trying to earn a living and they are caught in this system!
That is crazy about the trades and there usually isn't that big debt to pay off!
Hey interesting to hear your story, I also left university to pursue a more fulfilling course of study. In recent years I have taught myself all I know about Crypto day trading and Bitcoin for free online using Youtube and other websites. The world has indeed come a long way where kids don't need to go to a school anymore but can specialise at home.
What was the couse of study you left university to study - was it the ancient texts? Yes, the kids don't have to go to school and can specialize at home but how many are doing that and how can we as a society be more supportive of that?
Sounds like you love learning, just not in traditional classroom setting. What does RESP stand for?
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RESP - Registered Education Saving Plan it gives you a tax break from the government like RRSP s
I have a BS degree that I don't use (retired Army), but I used YouTube a lot while in college and it helped in a big way. However, it can never replace the hours spent in the lab and in the field where most of my real learning took place. That was built on the foundation of the classroom and textbooks. Another thing I must say college gave me, was it thought me how to critically think. That is something I never learned on my own in high school or the Army. It's sad but true. I, for one, am a strong advocate for higher learning. Plus I am the first of my family to get a degree and I love holding it above my high school friends hahaha
I'm for higher learning (but Universities are not always the place where that happens anymore) and I think critical thinking is a valuable skill to attain but can it be learned elsewhere?
My dad was the first in his family to go to university and that is why he was such a firm believer in education and wanted all his kids to have the chance to go to university or college too but I think the educational system has changed since that time dad went and I really don't think you are truly being educated in the best way possible there.
What a great read. I happen to have two degrees, and I definitely value education, but I agree, it definitely doesn't need to be in a formal setting. I've learned more things by sitting and doing than by any other method. Interestingly, I was using YouTube just last night to help me through a coding problem I was facing.
In the same vein I am a big supporter of modern technology. Anyone with a smart phone literally has access to the entirety of human knowledge in the palm of their hands. I value a formal education for encouraging children how to think and solve problems with the tools they have, and then to make new tools if the current ones aren't satisfactory.
Thanks for sharing!
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Technology is amazing and has given access to so much knowledge and I feel should be used more and more in educating our kids - doing away with those old tradition ways of school learning. There is so many different ways of learning that I think the regular classrooms can be a thing of the past.
Like your idea of having the kids develop new tools if the tools they have been given aren't working - keep things progressing!
Jordan Peterson is a great example of how this need not be an either-or discussion. Nice contribution to wheel him in.
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I have taught at the graduate level since 1992. There are so many ways to learn and the college route is just one of them. I dislike our present K-12 system that tries to push everyone to a 4 year degree, while devaluing any other skills. The travesty with this system is that it is woefully failing our children and our country. The internet provides an incredible opportunity for learning--so much so, that it is truly possible to become highly skilled in some areas without actually going to college. On the other hand, some skills are best learned through hands-on experience with an expert close by. I subscribe to an excellent series of woodworking classes, yet when I took those same classes in person (by the same instructor), he was able to watch me (say using a plane or a chisel) and correct me--something impossible to for him to do online.
The price of textbooks is often ridiculous, but for my classes, I usually use inexpensive books or free versions that are online. These days we really don't need publishers to get our work out there. It is still good to compensate someone for a good text, but that can be done at a fraction of what typical publishers charge.
Good to hear from someone who is working in the field! Such a shame that the K-12 system is failing our kids and I totally agree with you on this plus the fact that when you have someone there working one on one it's more effective way of learning than recordings.
Happy to see you are able to use less expensive books or the free versions so it alleviates the cost of texts!
What classes do you teach?
I learned stuff in school, just not stuff that was interesting to me. I never went to college though. But I've learned a lot of interesting stuff on the internet! And I love what Jordan Peterson has been doing. I subscribe to his youtube channel, and so I see a bunch of his videos. I had heard about his debate with Mr. Slavoj Zizek, but didn't have time to watch it at that time. I've got time today, so now I'm finally gonna get to watch it. I can't wait for the mind explosion! lol.
I am also for online training! The time spent on the road, you can devote to other matters 👌. I now listen (and practice) several drawing classes, so for almost any specialty you can find a teacher without leaving your home))
Most official places want you to purchase their text books, pay to write formal exams to obtain a piece of paper (at the end of the day that is all it is), still up to the individual to implement into skill.
Prior to internet this was the requirement for a position I suppose it still is, nothing beats learning at your own pace, via someone you understand. I have found a good few tutorials on a variety of topics over the years online.
Personally I feel every library should have a couple of computers open to public for access to online learning especially in remote/rural areas.
Once a young mind has decided which direction to go in, then possibly further assistance with finance in written exams. Not everyone is able to afford or commute to universities for education, in this day and age no one should be denied access to an education.
Here in Steem there are a group of highly skilled educators sharing excellent posts in #steemiteducation