"Mom, I want to learn to play the guitar"
"Mom, I want to learn Spanish"
"Mom, I need to learn professional photography"
"Dad, I must take computer classes"
Believe it or not, this is the list of demands from just one person - me. I love learning ( added to the usual demands for shopping). In another day and age I would've been a wanderer, picking things from one place and living through experiences and then probably growing old to narrate the stories of these to children and grandchildren of mine.
But I am not. I live in 2013, and I am short on both time and money for this sort of "idle-learning" - if you know an Indian parent then you know that hobbies are scarcely encouraged, that what you learn must make you money first, it may or may not make you happy. One can't entirely blame them. When the quest for survival becomes so intense, living life is but a dream between pages. So what do you do? You pick and chose, you win some, you lose some. You convince yourself that first you will do what you have to, then deal with the 'want to' part of life, if ever it exists. You calculate the 'opportunity cost', weigh and value your likes and dislikes, your talents and cognitive abilities, letting leisurely learning out of the picture - for the time being.
I paint for a hobby, I spent 10 years of my life in drawing classes spending 250 a month on fees and on an average a 100 on materials. There was no way I was going to get my guitar training, my language learning sorted. Youtube videos help, but somehow, I never manage to figure a cohesive way to go about it.
Then a friend, Akshay, introduced me to coursera.com and edx.org - mass open online courses - an online platform for students and teachers.
Universities like Harvard, MIT, Virginia, Pennsylvania are among many many others that are involved on these projects. It works very simply - courses are designed on a particular subject - say for eg. philosophy which include video lectures, links to reading material, discussion forums and assignment submisisons. The progress is weekly - In a span of four days, you watch around 10 short videos, read up on the subject via the links and sources provided by them, attempt quizzes get you doubts cleared via the discussion forums, where everyone meets. You learn a lot, from some very good professors ( I have taken up a course on Greek Mythology and Professor Gregory Nagy from Harvard is a one of those teachers whose mere body of work, duration of experience makes you want to listen to every word they have to say and hey! he even looks the part ). It is a huge boon for people like me who, for certain subjects, are mere learning enthusiasts. I love psychology, whether or not I preach or practice the same. I also love music, art, drama, history, culture, sociology and many related and unrelated fields. I don't have to bother about time and money anymore, I can learn anytime, anywhere.
There are obvious downpoints to this system. You cannot be assessed fairly at all times - the professor doesn't do it himself, not all courses are designed well, and the lack of human contact makes solving some very practical and subjective doubts very very difficult.
But nevertheless, it is a giant leap towards the future of education. It could be of great help to not only students like me, but even to teachers who may use it as a tool to back their text-book routines ( I am not sure if it is allowed, though).
All in all, it surely has more positives than negatives. It will by no way replace the physical teacher-student relationship. But in a country where political parties provide free laptops and internet connection but ignore the need to provide for better educators - MOOC's are the best bet we have.
PS: Chronic procrastinators, beware!
