Today I discovered this website, www.universalclass.com, and I find it fascinating.
What a great idea. It's a website for classes on every subject imaginable. Kind of like an ebay, for non-accredited online courses.
Here is a business-- a piece of online real estate-- dedicated to be a place for people to teach each other. Sharing information. A real community.
Plus, the owner problem earns a fairly substantial income just generated from this site. Seems like good business to me.
This would be an example of an effective online focus point for education.
If the classes are any good (I imagine they vary considerably in quality-- since in general it seems to me like you get what you pay for), and I bet many of them are quite useful, then I can imagine this would be an incredible for resource for people trying to get off the ground; for people who starting down the road of living a life that they want and love, and that is really an inspiring, extraordinary life.
One of the things that I love about this site- is that it's created by people genuinely interested in the material, and the people who are taking the classes, must be interested in learning!
That is such a rare quality in traditional school, that to see it in a functioning business model is really a blessing in my eyes.
I don't know what a future model of education might look like-- but this is certainly a viable model, and definitely highlights a place to start.
Unfortunately, in terms of marketing, while the site does offer certificates and grading to help students show what they have learned, the site remains quite limited.
Perhaps if they were to adopt a standardized model similar to that of the college board and their SAT and AP courses, one could provide more value in offering such courses.
I guess that would be the purpose of standardized certifications.
And I guess that would be what we call a college degree. A 'standardized certification' of sorts. Only-- that certification has been so diluted these days--
what about an education company who specialized in teaching to students who want to learn, AND in marketing those students, and in teaching them how to market themselves?
then THAT would be something.
like, even at the high school level, one could offer a variety of standardized degrees--
like, the purpose of the company could simply be-- to verify and provide measures to evaluate the ACTUAL KNOWLEDGE of a student-- and serve to market them and help them choose a course of study that is interesting and rewarding for them, AND that can be easily and systematically marketed.
Maybe that's just the key.
Homeschooling suffers from a lot of anti-marketing in society. Even though the tide is starting to change, generally speaking people still have a low to mixed regard for homeschooling.
Plus, you have organizations like the NEA who have a HUGE interest in the marketing status quo-- they want traditional schools to look great, and for there to be no alternatives. or the teachers risk losing their jobs and their power/security/position.
however, IF such a powerful marketing/education company DID exist-- they could ALSO help market and promote teachers themselves. If they did that-- if the company specialized in helping teachers-- perhaps that would be an incredibly powerful strategic move, in terms of earning the support of society and public opinion.
certainly an interesting idea. what do you think?
