The idea is to record every lecture in a public university (audio) including the booklist and such. Then these are put on a voice-response computer system. Then anyone with a telephone can sit in a university lecture. Anyone who had listened to all the lectures could come and sit an exam.
This would allow me to dial up my next lecture to listen to in the car (as a long voicemail type message) from my mobile handsfree car speakerphone... or from my cell phone in a train commute or at home in a remote african villiage without electricity, but with mobile telecoms service.
Given competition amongst lecturers, it would be possible to hone a public university recording system that had 3 excellent lecturers giving the same course, so that the listener could choose their preference.
Such a system is cheap, simple with existing technology, is chargeable and administratable given standard telecoms technology, and it would allow education to travel to places on this world where people do not have the luxury of visiting a campus... that might be 2 billion mobile phone users worldwide.
Internet education is much more fancy and MIT has a lovely open education system idea, but it is more specialized for those who have internet access.... i mean a more global system that plays towards audio schooling. For 100K in computer technology and the willingness of a university to be "recorded", this could be live and available for your use anytime anywhere, as well as the use of anyone in any country anytime anywhere.
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I agree 100%. Perhaps a good place to begin with using radio for education is to offer free, on-the-air language training (in North America, English for non-English speakers; Spanish and French for unilingual English speakers). Wouldn't that go a long way to minimizing the differences in society that keep people apart?
The first series i would focus on recording would be a series on philosophy of knowledge. It would focus on all aspects of ethics and knowlege. It would include Recordings of Rama, Dr Frederick lenz, Jean Baudrilliard, and Gangaji. Between a royalty-free 10 lecture series that i'm sure somehow can be arranged... a complete education is available to descriminate knowledge. Maybe a good process-theology christian speaker as well (but and egelatarian one)... also, a good lecture or two on comparative eastern religion including the tao te ching and the bhavagad gita.
If something is to be globallized using this technological mass of inertia, let it be the really good bits. I think the best is capturing the real artist/author in Q&A on live recording, and audio series are excellent like the one at www.wizardsofmony.org... its better prepared than "the economist" in terms of its exposure of aspects of what is history, and what is media... voltaire should have a bit in the discussion.... maybe what i'm seeing is an audio "classical philosophy" education that every person have the roots to depth and the best intelligence the world culture has to offer. I would definitely include a philosophy of maths lecture series also. Perhaps a philosophy of arts and all that good stuff.. but i think the greatest body of collective knowledge worth preserving first is the wisdom of the bright ones that defines the very fabric of our traditions and families. Let every lecturer make a series and offer free submission for a no royalty open contract.. with anonymitiy if a person so wished. Then the lecture series would be kept on a voice select audio system: "Press 14 for Roman History 641 Lecture 7 - Decline and fall of the empire" "Press 15 for What is the Buddha Dharma by Tulku Namkha Drimed""Press 16 for Christ and the gift of forgiveness by anonymous
You are right. there is absolutely no point in lecture classes where students don't interact with the teacher. everyone should just watch or listen to the best lecturer in the world. it seems these universities that see themselves as progressive can't advance out of the 12th century model of lectures and tenure and the like. they will do anything to avoid cutting costs which makes no sense when they are a public serving institution.
Great Idea..The recordings, or real-time lectures, can be streamed to anyone, anywhere. What a way to spread knowledge! With the technology available today, there is no reason why a monk in Tibet cannot listen to a lecture from great colleges throughout the world. I think this is something the educators can easily do, as a form of public service, to the world!
It would be interesting to see if there can be a virtual University, where the lectures are drawn from the best-known professors, educators, instructors throughout the world. Whether it offers a degree or credits is not as important as being able to educate the public.
This is easily done, just bring a recorder to class with you. I have recorded my classes at Caltech in Physics and Optics that I would be happy to contribute to anyone's site. I asked the instructors and most were flattered that I would care enough to want to record their comments, no one declined.
I have well over 200 hours of recordings although the quality is not as good as I would like, it's still listenable. If someone would like to start such a site, I would be happy to contribute my recordings (all in mp3 format.)
What about podcast? Most people I know have some sort of music player. Cell phones often charge by the minute and corded phones are not portable. Setting up an internet distribution system wouldn't take much sophistication, just plenty of bandwidth.
not sure how feasible that would be for those who have prepaid cellphones or live long distances from the college. this is a pretty well thought out idea and it could work...but what if your phone was disconnected? you sure wouldn't want to tie up a payphone or even tie up a friend's phone for that matter...and your cellphone bills could skyrocket because of this
Perhaps you could ask Stanford to release their audio content in additional venues, such as on AM radio stations in major markets.
there are several publishers out there who sell just this kind of thing. lecture series of 20 or 30 one-hour lectures, like a full college course. some poking around online could help here. As an aside, I recently enjoyed a great audio experience that gave the background and stories for different neighborhoods in new york city. really a great way to see a city. there are a few different folks doing this stuff, too. I used www.CityListen.com. CityListen. It was really great. check it out.