Information has become a commodity. Just about anything anyone needs or wants to know or learn about can be found for free on the Internet, with more information becoming available all the time. Is this a threat to the traditional university as we know it?
Anya Kamenetz clearly thinks so, and in DIY U she explains how we are at the beginning of a new age of do-it-yourself education driven by advances in Internet-based content delivery and instruction.
A Short History of Higher Education
A large part of the book is devoted to a rather dry and well researched discussion of the current university system and its flaws. To be sure, the flaws are many. According to Kamanetz, the value of an education seems to have decreased while its cost has increased dramatically in recent decades.
The author's discussion, it might even be called an exposé, of the business of education loans is troubling and well done. Not all education loans are a bad deal, but some certainly are.
Informative as it may be, this prelude to the real subject (DIY education) seems rather unnecessary. If it was needed at all to provide reasons why the traditional business and infrastructure that higher education is built upon is ripe for disruptive change, it certainly could have been made a lot shorter. Either that, or the title of the book could perhaps have been changed to more accurately reflect the bulk of its content.
Self-Directed Education and Learning
Higher education is certainly ripe for disruptive change. Part two of the book gets around to some of the changes already afoot. Most people are probably not familiar with the innovative ideas in education being spawned on the Internet – much of it free. Is a degree even necessary for success? Not necessarily. DIY U certainly provides a good case for at least considering alternatives to a traditional college pathway.
Part one of the book can be safely skipped if one's real interest is in tapping into useful resources for self-education and self-directed learning. The do-it-yourself path is not for everyone but for the truly motivated person, there is much to be gained by skipping the time, not to mention the cost, of a traditional sequence of university courses leading to a piece of paper.
It is not true that all information is available for free on-line. The quality of instructional text and videos varies greatly. The same is true of open courseware offered by universities. In reality, a lot of the courses are pretty useless and provide only a sketch of what would be available in a real class. The ones without video instruction or answer keys to the assignments are especially sub-par.
Does anyone doubt that the day will come when a high quality, low cost, and legitimate, self-motivated education will be available on-line? Probably not. But, we still have a ways to go before such a non-traditional path will be considered comparable to and as valuable as a good old fashioned college degree.
Source:
- Kamenetz, Anya. DIY U. White River Junction, Vermont: Charles Green Publishing, 2010.
Philip McIntosh - The author holds a B.Sc. in Botany and Chemistry and an M.A in Biology and he has thirty + years of experience in science and industry.
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