The Online University
July 7th 2007 17:39
**This is a long one, but it is serious and coherent. I'm starting to make some contacts with people about starting this but here's the reasoning behind the basic idea of a university that is online in which everyone is both a teacher and a student**
The online University.
A mission statement for the believers in the education concept.
Universities were once a battleground. But that battle has since been lost. We went down with barely a scream. Don't look now but the barbarians have control and your universities are now degree factories. But all is not lost, for they do not have the foresight to see that the internet is the only social aparatus which matters anymore. Sure the other structures are still there, but they are so old in this world which is accelerating so fast. The nation state was actually quite a short lived phenomenon, for it gave rise to its predecessor quite quickly in its history. But those who rode on the back of the strong who have passed on the word of art and thought have become stronger and stronger until we need not let the brutes have control anymore. For education has done much to rouse the masses from their eternal slumber, and as that fire is dimming down in the way of universities, as that battle draws to a close, it is necessary that when the dust settles and the brutes take a look at what they took over they find out it had been long deserted, that the men and women of the mind had moved on. That the men and women of the mind had moved online.
When people come together they form a network, a tangled web of interpersonal interactions. This is simply a tangled mess of connections. So, to be able to make any meaning out of it we organise ourselves into some kind of order, some kind of structure, put some patterns in there for us to recognise, now we have something intelligible to look at. But many among us struggle with the patterns of organisation, so they create something called freedom. And that's pretty much how it works, those who struggle struggle for freedom. This is the struggle as it is romantically understood. But what it points out is that the order of our societies meets with resistance because it is artificial, it is forced, real human interaction shouldn't be like this, most of our relationships are fake. We have to make fake communications to fit in with the structure. Especially the consumer structure, the world of service. But the point is that real human interaction is more complex and makes a tangled mess where old sources of power no longer hold the same weight. Freedom is the name of the game, and everybody is free to wake up if they can be reached. The sum of human knowledge is available to anyone who has the means and the will. This obviously must be increased, but we shall do that by working within, there are definitely enough people involved for it to be the single biggest change the earth has ever gone through. Definitely the single biggest change humanity has gone through, even more definitely the single biggest change society has ever gone through, don't even worry that it will be the single biggest change in the history of the modern west. And if it isn't any of those huge things, you can rest assured it will at least be the most important change in living memory. Simply by mere measure of the fact of how many people can be connected in a meaningful manner.
So here's how we do it. We recognise that it is already going on. All major cultural works are now available freely and accessibly to all those online. Everyone has access to the most comprehensive encyclopedia ever compiled. Everybody has a mouth peice from which to spurt their ideas. Everybody has a stage through which to present their art, their ideas, their lives, their thoughts. And everybody has a stage to conduct a conversation with anybody else. So here it is, anyone who doesn't take this seriously is going to miss the boat, because if you think wikipedia is not up to standard, that's where the vast majority of society will get its information from, it's already up there as one of the most commonly visited web sites. So make it up to standard, that's the beauty of it, its not inferior because it is built with the ability for anyone to came and make it superior, and if you don't believe it, go to an article on a major academic topic and look back through the editing history of it. You will see that it is a story of addition and refinement. An increasing accuracy and attention to detail. more reliable and well referenced. In a word: better.
So we must move in in earnest and set up our universities, only they won't look or feel like universities, but they will teach the world. For the consumer and the producer are now one. It will be a participatory university and people will become educated like never before. Everything from literacy and numeracy, to Socrates to Quantum physics. And it will be taught by the people who have something to teach about, so there will be people on all levels. But academics must be part of this community too and they can have classes that might have taken place in a university in the past, but more reach than ever before.
Every student must take another language, and every student can also be a language tutor in whatever language/s they speak. There was a time when people dared to have utopian visions like making a language for the whole world to speak. Perhaps that is now a pursuable goal. But at the very least we can increase the overlap of who can communicate whith whom more and more.
The language question will be one of the key founding goals of the institution. The next major goal shall be getting more and more people internet access. Everybody must have access to this. The world over, including the third world. Moreover the aim shall be to deal with the major issues in the world, with a key focus on attaining a high level of quality of life for every human being.
So there is the basic concept the online university. Now I shall make it happen. If you're thinking this is not actually going to happen, I ask you this, why do you believe in the lies you tell yourself? You can do anything you want. I am going to bring about the biggest revolution in the history of society that will make the French revolution and modernity look like a little shuffle up. Because millions and millions of people have already begun marching in the streets of the information superhighway, a new society is being formed with new rules, new morality, new concept of radical freedom. Freedom of association, freedom of information, freedom of expression. There are no restrictions, no barriers that can't be gotten around in 100 different ways, for it is the most tangled network of inter-human and inter-meme connection. Old methods of control and force are irrelevant. Those who so choose to take part are members of a truly new society. So let us build a structure in the spirit of wikipedia, myspace, youtube and second life whereby we each shall educate eachother and be educated by eachother. Let it be one of the foundations of our new society, a love of learning.
The online University.
A mission statement for the believers in the education concept.
Universities were once a battleground. But that battle has since been lost. We went down with barely a scream. Don't look now but the barbarians have control and your universities are now degree factories. But all is not lost, for they do not have the foresight to see that the internet is the only social aparatus which matters anymore. Sure the other structures are still there, but they are so old in this world which is accelerating so fast. The nation state was actually quite a short lived phenomenon, for it gave rise to its predecessor quite quickly in its history. But those who rode on the back of the strong who have passed on the word of art and thought have become stronger and stronger until we need not let the brutes have control anymore. For education has done much to rouse the masses from their eternal slumber, and as that fire is dimming down in the way of universities, as that battle draws to a close, it is necessary that when the dust settles and the brutes take a look at what they took over they find out it had been long deserted, that the men and women of the mind had moved on. That the men and women of the mind had moved online.
When people come together they form a network, a tangled web of interpersonal interactions. This is simply a tangled mess of connections. So, to be able to make any meaning out of it we organise ourselves into some kind of order, some kind of structure, put some patterns in there for us to recognise, now we have something intelligible to look at. But many among us struggle with the patterns of organisation, so they create something called freedom. And that's pretty much how it works, those who struggle struggle for freedom. This is the struggle as it is romantically understood. But what it points out is that the order of our societies meets with resistance because it is artificial, it is forced, real human interaction shouldn't be like this, most of our relationships are fake. We have to make fake communications to fit in with the structure. Especially the consumer structure, the world of service. But the point is that real human interaction is more complex and makes a tangled mess where old sources of power no longer hold the same weight. Freedom is the name of the game, and everybody is free to wake up if they can be reached. The sum of human knowledge is available to anyone who has the means and the will. This obviously must be increased, but we shall do that by working within, there are definitely enough people involved for it to be the single biggest change the earth has ever gone through. Definitely the single biggest change humanity has gone through, even more definitely the single biggest change society has ever gone through, don't even worry that it will be the single biggest change in the history of the modern west. And if it isn't any of those huge things, you can rest assured it will at least be the most important change in living memory. Simply by mere measure of the fact of how many people can be connected in a meaningful manner.
So here's how we do it. We recognise that it is already going on. All major cultural works are now available freely and accessibly to all those online. Everyone has access to the most comprehensive encyclopedia ever compiled. Everybody has a mouth peice from which to spurt their ideas. Everybody has a stage through which to present their art, their ideas, their lives, their thoughts. And everybody has a stage to conduct a conversation with anybody else. So here it is, anyone who doesn't take this seriously is going to miss the boat, because if you think wikipedia is not up to standard, that's where the vast majority of society will get its information from, it's already up there as one of the most commonly visited web sites. So make it up to standard, that's the beauty of it, its not inferior because it is built with the ability for anyone to came and make it superior, and if you don't believe it, go to an article on a major academic topic and look back through the editing history of it. You will see that it is a story of addition and refinement. An increasing accuracy and attention to detail. more reliable and well referenced. In a word: better.
So we must move in in earnest and set up our universities, only they won't look or feel like universities, but they will teach the world. For the consumer and the producer are now one. It will be a participatory university and people will become educated like never before. Everything from literacy and numeracy, to Socrates to Quantum physics. And it will be taught by the people who have something to teach about, so there will be people on all levels. But academics must be part of this community too and they can have classes that might have taken place in a university in the past, but more reach than ever before.
Every student must take another language, and every student can also be a language tutor in whatever language/s they speak. There was a time when people dared to have utopian visions like making a language for the whole world to speak. Perhaps that is now a pursuable goal. But at the very least we can increase the overlap of who can communicate whith whom more and more.
The language question will be one of the key founding goals of the institution. The next major goal shall be getting more and more people internet access. Everybody must have access to this. The world over, including the third world. Moreover the aim shall be to deal with the major issues in the world, with a key focus on attaining a high level of quality of life for every human being.
So there is the basic concept the online university. Now I shall make it happen. If you're thinking this is not actually going to happen, I ask you this, why do you believe in the lies you tell yourself? You can do anything you want. I am going to bring about the biggest revolution in the history of society that will make the French revolution and modernity look like a little shuffle up. Because millions and millions of people have already begun marching in the streets of the information superhighway, a new society is being formed with new rules, new morality, new concept of radical freedom. Freedom of association, freedom of information, freedom of expression. There are no restrictions, no barriers that can't be gotten around in 100 different ways, for it is the most tangled network of inter-human and inter-meme connection. Old methods of control and force are irrelevant. Those who so choose to take part are members of a truly new society. So let us build a structure in the spirit of wikipedia, myspace, youtube and second life whereby we each shall educate eachother and be educated by eachother. Let it be one of the foundations of our new society, a love of learning.
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