View Full Version : Who needs college? Complete university for free
mamboni
8th May 2011, 09:09 PM
Brick and mortar college education is overpriced, and obsolete.
If you have the time, and the desire, here are two millenia of knowledge for free:
http://www.khanacademy.org/
Book
8th May 2011, 09:25 PM
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11658
Fascinating 20-minute interview by Charlie Rose.
|--0--| I was impressed!
MrCottonsParrot
8th May 2011, 10:37 PM
I've reviewed Khan's courses in the past. This is the wave of the future if allowed to continue to exist unmolested.
vacuum
8th May 2011, 11:05 PM
If there is one thing I love, its knowledge like this. Everything they teach can be learned from text books though that takes longer. With such cheap hard drive space, the thought of just archiving everything - terabytes of pdfs, videos, wikipedia, is both realistic and a fetish that is better than most out there.
Shami-Amourae
9th May 2011, 12:16 AM
I wish I knew about this stuff in high school. I would have become a plumber or an electrician: Something real. I'm in the last 2 weeks of college, and looking back, I wasted so much money and time on this scam. Damn.
:-[
vacuum
9th May 2011, 12:17 AM
What degree?
TheNocturnalEgyptian
9th May 2011, 02:23 AM
I also feel as though when I left college, I was an idiot without a profession. Our society does not teach trades anymore.
boogietillyapuke
9th May 2011, 03:09 AM
Here's another.......http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm
crazychicken
9th May 2011, 06:29 AM
What tremendous resources.
Thanks!
CC
goldleaf
9th May 2011, 06:36 AM
Outstanding aids for homeschoolers!
BrewTech
9th May 2011, 06:41 AM
tag for later viewing... thanks Mamboni!
big country
9th May 2011, 06:45 AM
tagged for future reading
mamboni
9th May 2011, 06:58 AM
I wish I knew about this stuff in high school. I would have become a plumber or an electrician: Something real. I'm in the last 2 weeks of college, and looking back, I wasted so much money and time on this scam. Damn.
:-[
Time spent learning is usually not a waste - it can be parleyed into something. Anyway, whatever we know today is obsolete in 5 years. So, I tell my son, life is a continual exercise in learning new things. The biggest mistake one can make is dallying when young and not getting started today.
gunDriller
9th May 2011, 06:59 AM
best engineer i ever worked with had a BS in physics from Univ. of Conn.
he was completely hands-on for his entire career, they offered him management positions but he stayed in the lab. he ran rings around everybody.
he wasn't necessarily smarter than the other engineers, it's just that he knew how to use all the tools and wasn't willing to wait around for someone else to do their work.
he was the key engineer at a microwave instrument manufacturer that competed with HP. also the person that introduced me to gun-drilling as a manufacturing process, in that case for microwave instrumentation.
personally, i would say that traits such as -
* willing to get your hands dirty
* willing to trust your own eyes
* smart enough to not kill yourself with some power tool or electronics
* common sense -
those traits are all more important than X degree for many many disciplines.
one of the key engineers i know at one of the primary composites manufacturers - i think he has an AA. he is the key employee - he runs the "kitchen". what they "cook" is graphite etc., so his oven often runs at 2000 to 3000 degrees F. the company is full of PhD's. if one of them stays home sick, nothing happens. if he stays home sick, production stops.
one of the best stone-carvers i know is functionally illiterate. he proved he can actually read, but not much. he says he can't read. but he can carve precious stones like you wouldn't believe. i remember one piece of blue lapis that he carved for one of the silversmiths in their shop. i thought it was impossible, but he did it. a piece of stone about 2 millimeters wide & thick, curved in an arc to be set on a ring, about 1/2" long. he carved it & polished it. to me that is God-Like ability, most people would break the piece long before it got to polishing.
so yes, a degree is not always an asset. on the other hand, 2 of the engineers on my top-10 list i only met at college, that was where i got to learn from watching them.
and most of the other guys (unfortunately, there's no women on the list ... people need to give their daughters Dremel tools & soldering irons !) i only met because i was their co-worker or employee, and was hired because i had an engineering degree.
long story short, productive engineers are worth their weight in gold. (200 pounds, $30,000 a pound, $6 million) but to get halfway paid decent, the degree helps. not all corporations reward pure ability ... some of them do.
Ash_Williams
9th May 2011, 07:33 AM
http://www.apoliticus.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/khan.jpg
Bigjon
9th May 2011, 07:48 AM
http://gold-silver.us/forum/science-technology-and-medicine/knowledge-is-power/msg57155/#msg57155
mamboni
9th May 2011, 07:53 AM
http://gold-silver.us/forum/science-technology-and-medicine/knowledge-is-power/msg57155/#msg57155
Kudos BigJon, kudos! |--0--|
mamboni
9th May 2011, 07:54 AM
http://www.apoliticus.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/khan.jpg
Indeed, and you will note that lack of Introduction to Recognizing Forgery and Forgery 101. Pity.
brosil
9th May 2011, 10:07 AM
Additional resources for you.
http://www.isi.org/lectures/lectures.aspx?SM=&SBy=browse&SSub=speaker&SFor=&SS=date&SC=0
And The Long Now Foundation lecture archives.
vacuum
9th May 2011, 10:08 AM
one of the key engineers i know at one of the primary composites manufacturers - i think he has an AA. he is the key employee - he runs the "kitchen". what they "cook" is graphite etc., so his oven often runs at 2000 to 3000 degrees F. the company is full of PhD's. if one of them stays home sick, nothing happens. if he stays home sick, production stops.
Unfortunately, it seems like many times being a "key person" usually means you put in tons of hours and get paid the same (or in his case, less than) your coworkers. I guess you've got a good resume and reputation, but you're still putting in the hours....getting a degree means you're also putting in the hours....doesn't seem like a good deal either way.
Maybe if you really enjoy what you're doing it more like fun than work, but I've yet to experience that popular saying myself.
lapis
9th May 2011, 01:38 PM
Tagging for later viewing.
Low Pan
9th May 2011, 02:21 PM
tag
gunDriller
9th May 2011, 06:37 PM
in the software & computer graphics fields, many of the guys are self-taught.
also there's a lot of great education on line.
e.g. for learning XML, Adobe's "Flex in a week" class. XML is basically the current version of HTML.
for learning Flash, "GoToAndLearn.com".
madfranks
10th May 2011, 12:46 PM
Unfortunately more often than not, it's the piece of paper that matters more than what you actually know. As a licensed architect, I've done inspections and reporting that would not have been accepted if I didn't have the paper proving my credentials. And mamboni, as a medical professional, you know that you wouldn't be able to practice if you didn't have your special pieces of paper as well, regardless of how well you know your stuff.
mamboni
10th May 2011, 12:58 PM
Unfortunately more often than not, it's the piece of paper that matters more than what you actually know. As a licensed architect, I've done inspections and reporting that would not have been accepted if I didn't have the paper proving my credentials. And mamboni, as a medical professional, you know that you wouldn't be able to practice if you didn't have your special pieces of paper as well, regardless of how well you know your stuff.
Yes, that is true - one needs the ticket to ride. Unfortunately, higher education has degenerated into an overpriced Ponzi government-juiced scam. It is a bubble and it will burst, eventually. At some point, competition from internet-based education at reasonable prices with degrees granted will make inroads against the brick and mortar education guild; and that will be the end of the higher education cartel - for the betterment of all. Internet-based education will bring a renaissance to higher education, as it will give those with the desire and the abilities to excel and the rewards will be based on merit, not political correctness, affirmative action or who one knows.
Twisted Titan
10th May 2011, 01:05 PM
I also feel as though when I left college, I was an idiot without a profession. Our society does not teach trades anymore.
That is not by accident
That is by design
tekrunner
10th May 2011, 01:27 PM
Unfortunately more often than not, it's the piece of paper that matters more than what you actually know. As a licensed architect, I've done inspections and reporting that would not have been accepted if I didn't have the paper proving my credentials. And mamboni, as a medical professional, you know that you wouldn't be able to practice if you didn't have your special pieces of paper as well, regardless of how well you know your stuff.
Madfranks you're right, you do need the paper. Sell you some for $100?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m3eOCMSv6E
Bubble Fat
10th May 2011, 06:28 PM
tag-o-rama ;D
Mouse
10th May 2011, 11:49 PM
This is good and bad. You have to look at the backers. Who is supporting this free education?
This is the death knell to the uneducated Amerikan dufus. Having survived the dumb me public education, and not able to pony up the money for further dumb me education, the Amerikan will fall level with any of the other 7 billion earthlings. If the poor Indonesian kid has a laptop, he will learn and know all this stuff, and another stupid Amerikan is out a job.
That is the agenda. We are working in a system aimed at not only a global control and gov, but a global meritocracy for the lower peoples. Those that can learn all this information for free, will be competing with your children, who would have to pay many thousands to half learn the same things. This is another industrial revolution. We are building up and exporting for free, all of the technical and basics knowledge to the entire developing world, free of charge, while we charge ourselves hefty fees and interest for the same.
I am actively learning certain disciplines where I never touched, or passed but still didn't really understand in college. The site is awesome, the teaching is awesome and it really works. Who needs a teacher? This stuff is great. I am re-learning some calculus principles that I could solve and pass the test, but I never really got it. I never learned it, I just did what the teacher told us to solve it. This helps you actually understand it.
I don't know. I have a feeling that everyone but Amerikans will embrace this and could be launching engineers and chemists for nothing while we do keg stands in front of the white house. It's a technology transfer that globalizes and reduces the value of the knowledge that we who have already learned get from that knowledge. I think everyone should have access to learn, but the ramifications with globalism are scary. We are an endangered species here in the USA.
Twisted Titan
11th May 2011, 10:04 AM
Have you ever met a teacher or teachers who teach but never really worked out in the field ?
I have , and they really can only teach a portion of the whole picture, really.
They're missing out on sooo much stuff, it's like they're only teaching at a 10 % capacity .
They are on CNBC,FOX CNN all the time passing out info on how the economcy should be "fixed' while the live quite comfortable off the Wellfare oops I mean Tenure status as whatever university they have burrowed themselves into.
Libertytree
11th May 2011, 10:56 AM
Great thread and great posts!
I'm at odds with one of these college educated, paper bearing posers right now and he's driving me insane and screwing the business up in the process. He understands numbers, percentages, margins etc.. but he doesn't have a clue about managing people (staff), customer/business psychology and how it affects the bottom line. He's young enough to think he knows it all because of his degree and is not to be doubted because of it. He's never worked outside of the family biz in an employee basis and has no concept of real life outside of management. His arrogant pride and niavety is a veil over his eyes and as such it's forbidden to tell the emporer he has no clothes on.
I have to admit that I'm pissed about all this and maybe I'm just venting a bit as it seems apropos but I could run one of these stores out of a cigar box and a ledger sheet and run circles around his computer driven empire, not that using computers to help you is a bad thing but a business is not built on them either.
Ponce
11th May 2011, 02:21 PM
Well Liberty here goes one not so good post.......that site goes to much into numbers and that's something that I really don't care about, or chemistry.
Here once again it shows that education is for those who will take control and not for the regular John Does of the streets which consist of 98% of the world population........I made my bones by being intelligent and not smart......to me smart is what you learn by reading and intelligence is what you figure out on your own, also education only teaches what they know and not what you should know and that places a mental barrier which many times is hard to cross because according to what you were tought IS NOT SUPPOSED TO WORK.
I knew a very, very, very, smart guy who would not use an eight inch nail because it was two inches to long and he wanted to travel 5 miles to buy one single six inch long nail, I got a hacksaw and took two inches off and then gave it a point on the grinder........he didn't know what to say.
Is like I keep saying all the time......"Is not what you have but what you do with what you have"
I already gave the army two of my ideas (they did use one of them) and the navy one more which would enable a sub to travel 30% faster by using 4% more energy.....never got an answer from them so that I don't know if they are doing it.
StreetsOfGold
11th May 2011, 03:08 PM
Peter Shill... er I mean schiff had this guy on his radio program. He also had a former Sun Corp CEO who also started a FREE education school.
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