The bit which caught my attention

[dsrtao]

This is an interesting summary and commentary on the current state of higher education:

http://matt-welsh.blogspot.com/2012/01/making-universities-obsolete.html

Failure #2 is the interesting bit to me, right now. "It's not as if you get a D learning to ride a bike, then you stop and move onto learning the unicycle." The educational system looks for ways to measure outcomes, but the testing system is all screwed up, largely because it's easier to mass-produce things when they are all the same. People are not all the same, and we waste their potential when we try to fit them into average-sized boxes.

Comments

[sareena99.livejournal.com]

"People are not all the same, and we waste their potential when we try to fit them into average-sized boxes."

Thank you!

[pamelina.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and the whole curriculum needs re-thinking, too. We have too much knowledge to transmit, it's divided into too many arbitrary categories, and we don't triage its importance very well. We don't teach environmental biology and systems (ecosystems, economic systems, governmental systems, etc..), statistics, economics, psychology (conflict resolution, marketing,) logic, empiricism. But we teach Shakespeare and American history. Poorly.

Wouldn't most of the passing on of basic knowledge and skills be better done in programed learning courses on a computer? That would allow each student to advance at their own rate, it would eliminate failure, guarantee competence, allow teachers to be more effective problem solvers and enrichment providers to more students, and capture economies of scale.