Is Education Moving From Offline To Online To Peer-To-Peer?
Education is getting more expensive than ever, tuitions are soaring, and as they turn from students to alumni, recent graduates find them selves with long line of student loan payments ahead of them. That’s about the time to start looking for a starter job, and catch up on missing all the real-world skills that are just not taught in the study halls.
A Road 30 Years Long
At the same time, high-quality, interactive and technology-laden education has never been more affordable and easily accessible. There are numerous platforms that offer courses from some of the most famous universities around the world, as well as peer to peer platforms making it possible for you to learn from experts in your field.
Open courses are not a novel idea – it has just taken them 30 years to get to where they are today. They originated in the open source movement, that focuses on software that could be freely (re)distributed and modified, with the whole community taking part in the process. The only requirement is that your work remains open to all, just as the one you’ve built upon was.
The premise of the open courses is that they level the playing field by making education available to all – and in the manner of the open source movement – free for all to contribute.
Peer-To-Peer-To-Employer
Everyone has something to offer, is what this movement is all about, but it’s also the main idea behind Uducate.Me, a free knowledge-sharing portal utilizing live video chat and tools that help individuals do just that.
The site helps users learn from anyone, anywhere, and offers incentives for helping out others. It also tracks your progress, builds your reputation, and helps you achieve your goals – in life, at school, and in your career.
The way the Uducate team describes it, it’s:
…like Google Helpouts + StackOverflow for non-programmers + CareerBuilder all in one.
From a B2B standpoint, UducateMe helps employers identify talented individuals who are eager to learn, something that is hot goods on today’s job market. Back to the B2C – or you – this also means that while you hone your skills, you also up your chances of landing a job you want.
This way, Uducate.Me brings together open education, skill development and the recruitment process in one mash up platform, but it also entices life-long learning, a personal characteristic you better acquire.
