Asynchronized Education

When I learn from video lectures, I noticed how sporadic and irregular my learning patterns are. For example, I might take lecture 18 from its 30th minute until 30th minute of the next, lecture 19. I might take two a day, one a day, or half. Physically, I might be in two or more different cafes, eat something in between at yet another place, finally, near the end of the day, finish things up on my couch at home.

This is how “school” in 21st century feels like. My teachers are top notch researchers in their field who are so good they make things as simple as possible (but no simpler). They pepper their lectures with useful tidbits which are in the “cool tricks” category, that also reveal their researching, thinking approach – and that is more valueable than gold. Even after factoring in the recent price of gold :)

As a result, this kind of learning is completely asynchronized.

The old approach with some average teacher “teaching” and the student listening right then and there, in a synchronized fashion, is dead. The old method can never scale. Liberals in US (they are mislabeled by the way, they are more accurately described as “statist left”) need to stop bitching about teachers losing their jobs, and start thinking more appropiately for 21st century. You might feel nostalgic or sentimental about this, maybe you had teachers in your family, maybe your mother was one. So was mine. You dont see me crying do you?

So pull your head out your ass. Times are a-changin’.