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Is formal education dying?


Autonomous

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This topic relates to the formal education, degree system and institute education. Is it dying due to growth of e-learning and open learning platforms which are flexible, bespoke, cost effective and rationale based?

 

-To start off, everyone goes through the same robust learning/ course with formal education however we do know that everyone is different and having same sort of learning/ skills creates a saturation with there being many people of similar skills/ background thus resulting in modern day unemployment among educated youth. There is a case that you may not be able to best utilize yourself as a unique individual if you go through the same higher education process as like many others whereas you can through open learning platforms get into stuff in which you feel you are "uniquely good at"

 

-Time & Monetary Cost involved in formal education is alot more than open learning sources, you can always go through and spend time at e-learning platforms, observe different things, apply them yourself as through a DIY approach and think how you can add value to the things, surely it (open learning) encourages innovation as well while being very easy to approach, user friendly, diverse and cost effective (anyone can have web access)

 

-Start-up culture has greatly picked up recently amid increasing unemployment, also there is great market-place for freelancing. So the type of marketplaces or where you would use your skills to generate an output has changed intensively. As a freelancer you can crrate your "niche" as freelance tourism writer or travel consultants. Hence there are so many areas and dimensions that could be explored which may never be offered by a particular educational institute due to cost-benefit grounds.

 

What do you people think about the learning and education system? In my opinion, basic education should be the way forward with e-learning, open learning, socialization being dominant skill-development platforms. 

Edited by Autonomous
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22 minutes ago, Stradlater said:

Formal education is very much alive and kicking in South Asia and other regions of the third world. 

But then again, as our generation which faces menace of unemployment and professionals being exploited left, right and center. Do you think it will continue.

 

I will never encourage or push my future generations to take it up and put in so much time, effort and money just to get nothing but struggle. 

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14 minutes ago, Autonomous said:

There are so many niche options these days. Sharing industry such as airbnb, uber etc. have also changed dynamics. 

 

You have even vlogging as an industry.

Aaj kal har koi ******** vlogger ban gaya hain. The ones I particularly hate are the reaction channels. You must really have no life if you are prepared to watch someone who is watching something else and then wait for their opinion about why they were watching it and how they felt while watching it. 

Edited by FischerTal
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1 hour ago, FischerTal said:

Aaj kal har koi ******** vlogger ban gaya hain. The ones I particularly hate are the reaction channels. You must really have no life if you are prepared to watch someone who is watching something else and then wait for their opinion about why they were watching it and how they felt while watching it. 

Yes. But there is more to it, you also have reviews/web based content industry. 

 

Social media marketing in itself is very common these days and relevant skills can easily be obtained through web. 

 

Coursera type applications put up a different dimension to open learning platforms where you can learn array of skills.

 

You also have socializing and learning platforms that include social media groups, even web based forums such as one we are currently based in provides a great platform to interact, learn new things and so on. 

 

So there is so much to look forward to, you can learn different specific art just through forums and youtube be it auto detailing or cooking (there might be specific learning platforms available for something like french cuisines). 

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1 hour ago, FischerTal said:

Aaj kal har koi ******** vlogger ban gaya hain. The ones I particularly hate are the reaction channels. You must really have no life if you are prepared to watch someone who is watching something else and then wait for their opinion about why they were watching it and how they felt while watching it. 

Bhuvan Bam makes minimum 2 crores a year with highest around 32 crores. Even a Stanford MBA can dream of making that much money.

 

He is a good entertainer but it shows how things have changed so quickly.

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@Autonomous I believe 2008 recession changed everything. Now businesses are more risk averse and fund only that kind of research in universities which can guarantee a good return on investments. Which is why some professors from Princeton University I contacted have written to me that they are not receiving any funding. 

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8 minutes ago, MechEng said:

@Autonomous I believe 2008 recession changed everything. Now businesses are more risk averse and fund only that kind of research in universities which can guarantee a good return on investments. Which is why some professors from Princeton University I contacted have written to me that they are not receiving any funding. 

Lets put it through a rational view and behavior. Why would a person spend four years in a particular programme, spend alot of time and effort whereas in same time and with same or less amount, he can push for a start-up while pursuing skills and expertise which he finds that he is uniquely good at and can add value in the long-term. 

 

E-learning & open learning are alternatives to formal education and modern day business models/dynamics also demand learning which these platforms can specifically offer only.

Edited by Autonomous
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15 minutes ago, MechEng said:

Bhuvan Bam makes minimum 2 crores a year with highest around 32 crores. Even a Stanford MBA can dream of making that much money.

 

He is a good entertainer but it shows how things have changed so quickly.

If you were to visit freelancing websites, there are so many dynamic and versatile skills in demand which I think hardly any formal qualification or education can equip you with. 

 

I have seen people without higher formal education that go for courses, e-courses, web learning and they are earning a very fascinating amount of money. 

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5 minutes ago, Autonomous said:

Lets put it through a rational view and behavior. Why would a person spend four years in a particular programme, spend alot of time and effort whereas in same time and with same or less amount, he can push for a start-up while pursuing skills and expertise which he finds that he is uniquely good at and can add value in the long-term. 

 

E-learning & open learning are alternatives to formal education and modern day business models/dynamics also demand learning which these platforms can specifically offer only.

There is no substitute for classroom interaction in my opinion if you are lucky to have great professors.

 

But yes, with changing times e-learning will make academia obsolete.

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I can only talk about my field so here goes: Here is my intake from earning a university in COMP SCI and being in 40K debt. Majority of the things learned were nonsense and was a waste of time. It became quite evident as I started to get to my 4th year that out of the 40 courses I had to take (electives - why you even exist), perhaps 7-8 ATMOST were usefull. Not to mention, most of the materials taught in class for almost all the courses, I had to learn from outside source (Mostly youtube) cause some of the profs were not good. Electives are the worst. Doing a computer science degree, while we are forced to take electives and waste time on courses such as how F*cking human toilet came to existent in one of my elective class - yes, that was 1k wasted to learn how human toilet came to life. 

 

To make it worst, when I finally graduated and started working, some people were making close to 6 figures or more by doing trade programs, those coding bootcamp or courses from edx.org and getting microsoft, IBM, Google cerfiticate. They were actually better equiped to deal with issues compared to university graduated students because they are more hands on where as we learn theories after theories without any real world application, making simple application, programs and what not

 

In summary: UnIvErSiTy is becoming a scam each passing year. Espacially in the software developping field!!!!!!!!

If I did the same bootcamp - would have been done in about 1year compared to 4-5years, could have started working. Any entry level coding job is anywhere from 50-70k in Canada, each passing year, salary increase + option to change job and increase salary further. Let's assume that bootcamp cost me 5k (usually that's the price I saw), I would have been in 5k debt, would have paid it off within couple months of work and debt free. Where as university has put a knife through my pocket LOL

Edited by Zero_Unit
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8 minutes ago, Vilander said:

formal education is not just tech sector. there are core sectors too where real money is at. 

I think if you want to be a doctor then formal education could be crucial for you. But then again, only a limited amount of people who aspire to be a doctor should pursue.

 

In third world/asian countries there is normally huge pressure that you've got to be a doctor or it is the end of life for you. 

 

As someone above rightly said, 99.9% are "clamoring" for it, possibly without realizing what their core strengths are and what they can deliver to the society.

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6 minutes ago, Autonomous said:

I think if you want to be a doctor then formal education could be crucial for you. But then again, only a limited amount of people who aspire to be a doctor should pursue.

 

In third world/asian countries there is normally huge pressure that you've got to be a doctor or it is the end of life for you. 

 

As someone above rightly said, 99.9% are "clamoring" for it, possibly without realizing what their core strengths are and what they can deliver to the society.

core sector as in not just doctors. lawyers, banking/finance, insurance, parma and other health care etc there are lots and then comes essential professions transportation, firefighting, law and order each one needs formal education. In west even construction workers and contractors go through formal certifications ad class room training provided by govt online or in classrooms ( it is formal education for them)

 

the title of OP is absurd, its like saying is human existence beginning to not exist ? how the hell can that happen ?

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45 minutes ago, Vilander said:

core sector as in not just doctors. lawyers, banking/finance, insurance, parma and other health care etc there are lots and then comes essential professions transportation, firefighting, law and order each one needs formal education. In west even construction workers and contractors go through formal certifications ad class room training provided by govt online or in classrooms ( it is formal education for them)

 

the title of OP is absurd, its like saying is human existence beginning to not exist ? how the hell can that happen ?

All the above mentioned professions are highly specific and should be pursued by the people with spark and not every X, Y or Z. 

 

By the way, alot of banking/finance stuff is available online for learning. Freelance accounting and book keeping is pretty common now as well. 

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