Although it is great to have lectures, slides etc. online (check also the Open Course Ware initiative from MIT), it is still a difference if you are just listening to the lectures or if you can really interact with the people attending.
Education is more about interaction and struggling for ideas than it is about listening to lectures.
Still great complimentary resources ... (also for lecturers).
>Education is more about interaction and struggling for ideas than it is about listening to lectures.
I disagree. Education is about acquiring skills & knowledge. Lectures, interactions, books, tutors, classmates.. these are the way education is delivered. Maybe university experience is "more about interaction and struggling for ideas than it is about listening to lectures," but saying that about education as a whole sounds a lot like saying news is about printing.
I have been an autodidact all of my life, and poor (and occasionally homeless) most of my adult life. I'm still young.
I've been learning partially via online video lectures (specifically MIT's OCW) and course materials since they first started popping up a few years ago, and I've learned a great deal - however, I feel that I would have learned much more if I was in a situation where I was always very close to being able to interact with other people learning the same stuff in person. Not to mention that there are other benefits.
In fact, I'll probably be pursuing college after completing my next gig, which is 4-5 months down the road - mainly because the type of stuff that I'm very interested in (like friendly AI and cognitive science) are only really moving in colleges - I'd be put directly in contact with more people with more interests doing more relevant stuff once I sludged past the undergrad part.
It's not that I can't keep learning and applying my knowledge on my own, it's that I think I may have hit a point where it's just not as efficient (for my purposes) anymore.
Colleges can be very useful. Access to lectures is only one of the ways they do what they do. That particular aspect, well you can do that without them.
I'm not saying this replaces colleges. Just saying that this also helps people become educated.
Education is about learning how to learn. You can either learn by yourself or with others. Learning with others is more effective and enjoyable, which is why sites like HN exist. Learning to learn with others is something you get from going to university, i.e. interaction and struggling for ideas.
I don't disagree that this (the recent availability of online lectures) is not a mirror replacement for uni. It's also not entirely new. The possibility of getting a uni equivalent education without enrolling has always existed (at least partially). Books, uni Libraries. Many places will let you sit in on virtually all classes without enrolling. But it has always remained in the sidelines.
But... Pointing to any developed of this kind and saying 'this isn't uni' as if it means something really substantial is short sighted. The improvement & accessibility of free online learning materials is going to have a profound effect, most probably.
If Universities' value is kept only in the fringe: 'interacting with others,' 'the personal & social experience' & the rest of the things that cannot be replaced by online study, well... Universities have an educational (skills & knowledge, if you prefer) role and a gate-keeping role. If they loose their edge on those, they loose their edge.
Only if you could filter them somehow. Most omnisio comments weren't serious. Half of the lecture comments would be idiots making fun of the instructors hair.
