One World

35) Free Education

Posted 30th August 2016

A man in the western USA was asked by his niece in the Eastern USA for help with her homework. Unfortunately, the man was busy with his work as a stock broker, helping to make rich people richer, and so he wasn't available at the times that suited his niece. Then he had an idea - when he had some spare time, he prepared a video showing a black screen, upon which he wrote in various colours as he dictated a lesson on the subject area his niece was struggling with. Then he emailed the link to the YouTube video he'd prepared to his niece, with his apologies for being too busy to help her in person. After a while, he got a call from his niece to thank him for what he'd did, as the video had been very helpful to her. He said she was very kind, and apologised again for not having been there in real time. Then she said something that surprised him. She said that the video was far better than a real time one to one lesson. This was because whenever she didn't understand a part of the lesson on the video, she could pause and rewind it. She could watch the whole lesson again and capture anything she had missed the first time, or had simply forgotten. She asked for more videos like it, in preference to a one to one lesson where she might feel too embarrassed to admit she'd missed something.

So, the man from the Western USA prepared more videos, and on other subjects his niece was studying. His niece continued to give him positive feedback on the effectiveness of the videos. With a renewed sense of purpose in his life, the man left his job as a stockbroker and worked full time in a cupboard of his house, preparing videos on ever more diverse subjects: mathematics, history, science, etc. The man put the videos online for anyone to watch and began to structure the lessons into a syllabus: progressing from elementary education through to advanced high school topics. He set up a website which allows students to proceed to higher levels only after they've scored full marks on the previous lesson, and achieved the corresponding virtual medals.

The website and the videos are gradually being adopted within various countries, to the extent that the teacher now offers a supervisory role, mentoring their students as they learn at a pace that suits them, and so do not miss any key information that is necessary for understanding in later lessons. This virtual school is called 'The Khan Academy', after it's creator Salman Khan, and KhanAcademy.org is freely available to every individual on Earth who has internet access.

I hope that The Khan Academy expands to cover all important topics, presented in a structured and logical way, and taught by the most effective teachers. I hope that it continues to be free, and everyone on Earth is enabled to access it and are helped to follow their heart's desire and realise their full potential through education.

(KhanAcademy.org)

I also think education, as well as exercise, is willingly embarked upon when it is fun and/or interesting. The recent popularity of 'Pokemon Go!' where people hunt down virtual monsters in real geography could be adopted in education by having students awarded with points for, e.g., finding particular museum pieces, learning about them, then later being tested on what they've learned. If they score full points, they unlock another adventure, sending them on a fun and exciting expedition of discovery. In this way, students can learn and become practiced in their chosen subject in a memorable way.

When I went to university, almost all of the lectures involved the lecturer transcribing his notes onto a white screen via an overhead projector. Then, us students frantically tried to get all the hand-written, and sometimes partially illegible, notes down on our notepads before the lecturer whipped the transparent away and started on the next overhead of notes. Some of the lecturers, who may well be great researchers, were not as effective as others as teachers so it made learning more difficult. So, with my own frantic handwritten notes, often incomplete as I'd been too slow to catch the last sentence or so before the next overhead went up, and often not as well explained lessons as they might have been by a more effective lecturer, I somehow struggled through my degree course. On reflection, I would much rather have been allowed to sit back with my arms folded and give my full attention to learning what was being said, and not feel anxious about the presentation going to fast - but at a pace that was perfect for me - only moving on when I perfectly understood the concept. Even better, that I could rewind and go back to a point in the lesson which I might have forgotten or needed to pay closer attention to. This is only possible if the lectures were delivered in the style given by the Khan Academy lessons. There are presently some university course shown on YouTube, by universities such as Yale (USA). When I watch these, I can sit back, relaxed, and really listen and observe the lesson, not be a frantic transcriber as I had been in my own university days.

But what about all the teaching staff who will lose their jobs if all lessons, lectures, practical demonstrations, etc. are conducted online so that a high standard of education in all subjects is available to all people? How will these poor teachers pay rent? Pay bills? Buy food? etc. - well, I suppose we're just going to have give them, and everyone else rendered redundant by automation, everything they need for free.

Let's have the best classroom lessons and lectures delivered freely online, and in a structured and interesting way. Let's have compulsory online primary education on maintaining good health of the self and of the global society as a whole. Let's have education readily accessible and free for everyone on Earth. So much of the problems of the World are borne from a lack of education: racism, homophobia, bigotry, sexism, etc.