[TemperateSloth]

I believe quite a few universities are already providing services via the iPhone or iPod Touch.

And since I live in the United States, I'm using our college/university systems here as my frame of reference.

There has been a discussion of the Kindle 2 in another thread on this forum. Could you use the combination of a Kindle 2, now selling for $300.00, the low-end iPod Touch, and a netbook, as a delivery system for a nearly free college education? Other than the cost of these tech devices, blank notebooks and pens, etc.?

Perhaps the initial degree for such a system could be a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, with a minor in business entrepreneurship, or vice versa.

You would have to recruit retired professors to develop course content, which would be delivered via the Kindle 2, the iPhone or iPod, or the netbook. Textbooks on the Kindle 2, audio lectures and some videos on the iPod, and other videos plus simulations on the netbook.

It would also be necessary to find other volunteers to supervise the exams the students take after completing one course, and perhaps a comprehensive final exam when they have completed their studies.

The most difficult task would be achieving the exact same accreditation of the program as the colleges and universities receive here in the U.S.

So would this be possible now, or is it nothing more than a pipedream?

[thod]

You don't even need tech, just the desire to learn. I recall the story of a patent examiner who did quite well in physics.

[RBM]

	Originally Posted by thod To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	You don't even need tech, just the desire to learn. I recall the story of a patent examiner who did quite well in physics.

Oh, you mean
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Thomas Valone, PhD is the President of Integrity Research Institute and Editor of the well respected Future Energy newsletter and Enews. He has authored 6 books and numerous scientific studies, articles and papers related to energy in all forms. He provides consultations on electrical product design/development, engineering testing, environmental/electromagnetic field/energy, expert testimony and opinion. He meets regularly with congressional and senate leaders and briefs them on the latest energy developments. His views regarding energy-related matters have been featured on national media including CNN. See Valone's Curriculum Vitae or his Short Bio for more concise information. Dr. Valone was a Patent Examiner for the Physics, Measuring, Testing, Instrumentation Class 324, Art Unit 2858, GS-12. He examined and approved patents related to Electric and nonelectric properties, testing in specific environments, calibrating electric meters, sensing electricity, internal combustion engine ignition system, electromechanical switching devices, thermoelectric properties, electrostatic field sensing, fault detection, impedance/admittance testing, power measurement, motors/generators. He was elected as Board member of the PTO Society in 1999.

[Monte314]

You can get the material free now. With technology, you can get lots of the instruction free... now.

What you won't get free is the credential (i.e., diploma, certificate, degree)

[ssrprotege]

	Originally Posted by thod To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	You don't even need tech, just the desire to learn. I recall the story of a patent examiner who did quite well in physics.

	Originally Posted by RBM To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Oh, you mean To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Interesting, RBM. I didn't know that person. When I first read thod's comment, however, Albert Einstein immediately came to my mind.

[RBM]

	Originally Posted by ssrprotege To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Interesting, RBM. I didn't know that person. When I first read thod's comment, however, Albert Einstein immediately came to my mind.

Did you catch my smiley face ?

I too thought of Albert Einstein, as I'm quite sure that's who thod was intending the reader to think of - he's not the first I have seen to make such a comment in such a way about Albert Einstein.

The short version of Tom Valone's story is he's a proponent of 'zero point energy'. I have read of other's in the knowledge gap of physics R&D make comparisons between Einstein and Valone - I am not the first.

[Rope]

That would lead us even closer to the society of 'Man As Machine'. The Human Robot Age?

[Mader]

MIT has classes online.

[SlighAnarchist]

As does UC Berkeley


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[Splog]

The UK has the Open University (open to non UK residents) that was setup by the UK government in 1969. You can complete courses at bachelors, masters, and PhD level from home, with only having to show up someplace to take the exams.

As has always been the case you can self-educate, and the range of downloadable lectures and such available now provides guided learning and convienence. The problem, as noted in the OP, is getting some form of accreditation for your learning.

[Wintersun]

While the course being able to be produced nearly free does have the chance of reducing prices, the thing about the large majority of fees is all the personnel costs and such. The retired professors will expect to be paid for their input and such.

Ultimately, educators will prefer to earn money than otherwise. While this may cut costs, I think we'll probably still end up with something that people will have to pay for.

Economics - when quantity supplied > quantity demanded, the price will fall, and vice-versa. Here, the quantity supplied of such education will be small at its inception, and the quantity demanded will be high, forcing prices upward. Should you wish to pursue this option for education, it will be best done by a sector independent of market forces, say, the government.

Which may not care, so... whatever.

[Iggy Hazard]

A secondary purpose of college is to waste peoples' time and energy with the exception of those who are going for doctorates or Master's degrees. The current primary purpose of college is to get people enslaved to debt as early in their working lives as possible so they spend the next 10 years in abject misery, paying off debts that will haunt them for the rest of their lives even after they're paid off (due to the damage already done). Even if college was free or nearly free, it would still be a waste of time and energy since college education becomes obsolete within two years after graduation (again, with the exception of doctorates and other such degrees). The whole purpose of this college system is to cultivate perpetual obsolescence so no one ever ends up making too much money (by the system's standards).

The system doesn't want anyone with anything less than a Bachelor's making more than $350 for a 40-hour workweek. The system doesn't want anyone with anything less than a Master's making more than $450 a week. Those who find a way out of or around these confines are flukes who've somehow figured out a way to live free from the system's boundaries or have circumvented the system's rules in some way.

The purpose of law is to enforce social darwinism. The purpose of order is to limit human potential. Different ideologies and different forms of social order (socialism, fascism, globalism, etc.) are merely different versions of the same concept -- control of peoples' minds and actions through state- or socially-enforced mediocrity and futility. More often than not, college is just another functionary of this machine.

[Wintersun]

Society is extremely difficult to control if people's abilities are not restricted in some way.

If a small detachment of 100 high-level INTJs are injected into any large social group (government, college, business, whatever) at a decision-making level, the entire structure will turn inside out.

That would utterly screw the ESTJs currently in charge.

[Iggy Hazard]

	Originally Posted by Wintersun To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Society is extremely difficult to control if people's abilities are not restricted in some way.

It's not peoples' abilities that need to be controlled. Only cruelty and ruthlessness. And "control" isn't the right word. I prefer the terms "punish" or "destroy."
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	If a small detachment of 100 high-level INTJs are injected into any large social group (government, college, business, whatever) at a decision-making level, the entire structure will turn inside out.

Sounds fun to me.
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	That would utterly screw the ESTJs currently in charge.

Let's turn them screws, yo!
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