United States has been ranked below average in mathematics, average in reading and average in science…the answer is YES. But there is HOPE. Many companies from startups teaching you how to code for free to Apples iBook2 are getting serious about educating America!
We can point many fingers at the media, at our love of materialism or at the government but the truth is the United States has an incarceration rate of 743 per 100,000 people, compared to 325 in Israel, 217 in Poland, 154 in England and Wales, 96 in France, 71 in Denmark, and 32 in India. More importance is given to getting people in jail then getting them in school.
But today the game is about to change. Starting with Codecademy.com, an easy online interactive and FREE way to learn how to code. Not only do you get weekly classes but you can compete with your friends on the path to building great websites, games and apps. At the end of each lesson, you can tweet, like or share your accomplishment =)
Most recently, Apple unveiled ability for authors to create their own digital textbooks in minutes. And if Apple is working on it, you know its going to be successful.
So what are actual schools doing? Believe it or not MIT, yes Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is launching an online learning initiative called M.I.T.x, which will offer M.I.T. courses free of charge online. It won’t get you an MIT degree but it will get you an official certificate of completion…better then any GED.
If MIT is too stuffy, you can also attend University of the People, a not-for-profit institution that aims to offer higher education opportunities to people who generally couldn’t afford it by leveraging social media technologies and ideas. It was started in 2011 by UN’s Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technology and Development (GAID). This all online institution uses open source courseware and peer-to-peer learning in delivering classes without charging any tuition!
Whats the future of education? It only makes sense that if the internet is going to level the playing field in just about EVERY industry from music to retail, why would it not level the playing field in education. Information is literally being delivered to our finger tips and soon we will all be free from the current high price of education, hopefully moving Americans pass an average grade.
