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I never understand all this hubbub. Does anyone actually think millions of Americans suddenly found a love of knowledge in the past couple decades? I know I'm i

I never understand all this hubbub. Does anyone actually think millions of Americans suddenly found a love of knowledge in the past couple decades? I know I'm in college to get a piece of paper to get green pieces of paper. I learn what I care about on my own time. The majority of people are in college because you get (rewarded for | penalized for not) going by Mr. Market, however you want to spin it. It doesn't matter whether it becomes apparent in your work that your degree was basically irrelevant. Booming education among a market where the fastest growing and largest job sector is shit jobs in service is just nation wide stack ranking. We're all on a treadmill and we can't all win.

visarga 10y ago
We can all win in the domain of personal development. Most of what I learn, I learn for fun. I am happy to be able to stand on the shoulders of these great people and see further ahead.
Perceptes 10y ago
That's a very cynical, narrow, and depressing view of what education is. I very much doubt that view is shared by anyone that started or worked on Coursera or any other MOOC.
- mark_edward 10y ago
  It's a view about why people get education, not what education's potential is. If I felt I had the luxury to go to college and spend 4 years and thousands of dollars broadening my horizons, I know what I would study, what classes I would take, what professors I would talk to. But I don't feel that secure and so I am doing something completely different. I enjoy learning, I really do. I spend my freetime reading texts about what I love and talking to other more educated people who've studied it. It's not why I went to college, and not why people told me to go to college ever since I was old enough to understand arguments about my future life prospects and career and etc. It's not why my aunt who's been a nanny for 20 years is going to com-college, It's not why my mom is becoming a CPA, it's not why my dad went to engineering school, etc.
aldanor 10y ago
It's not all about the green pieces of paper though.
- mark_edward 10y ago
  It's not. That's why I do what I do in my free time, the time of my life that's actually mine. The school and the work is just to reproduce myself day-to-day, year-to-year with the necessary resources. If I felt I had the material and financial freedom to do otherwise, I would.
mdpopescu 10y ago
In the last 2 years I've done about 30 interviews. (I like short-term contracts.) I've only been asked about a degree once, and the guy said "I don't have one either". I still took a few Coursera classes because computer science is just damn interesting to me :)
perseusprime11 10y ago
I agree with your argument and this is not just about American or Indian or Chinese education system. It is a fundamental mindset issue. I remember very vividly asking my mom why I should go to school and I dont remember the exact answer but it was on the lines of 'You need to do it so you can go onto get a job and do amazing things in life' so if you take go to school, get a job out of that sentence, you might as well say do amazing things but do you need to get a degree?
icc97 10y ago
One of the points of Coursera is that it isn't just for Americans. It's for everyone everywhere who don't have the same level of access to education that Americans have. So it doesn't matter if no more Americans want to learn there's billons in other countries who'd love to have access. I think the American education system is awesome the respect of opening their system up to the world. My native UK has basically nothing. Cambridge and Oxford have a few online courses, but barely even one UK university will even bother to run a course on Coursera.
- j45 10y ago
  Universal access to information wasn't pioneered by Coursera. Khan Academy was probably the Pokemon Go of that.
  - icc97 10y ago
    I didn't mean to imply that Coursera was the first. Khan Academy is equally fantastic and MIT was also pushing open learning before Coursera too. Incidentally though I've found Coursera to be the first online course that inspired me to complete multiple courses.
robotresearcher 10y ago
The hubbub has subsided. This article is about Koller leaving Coursera to work on machine learning for an unrelated (gerontology) company. Every generation invents distance education and gets excited all over again. It's good every time, and each round leverages the new technology, but it quickly becomes the new normal.

visarga 10y ago

We can all win in the domain of personal development. Most of what I learn, I learn for fun. I am happy to be able to stand on the shoulders of these great people and see further ahead.

Perceptes 10y ago

That's a very cynical, narrow, and depressing view of what education is. I very much doubt that view is shared by anyone that started or worked on Coursera or any other MOOC.

mark_edward 10y ago
It's a view about why people get education, not what education's potential is. If I felt I had the luxury to go to college and spend 4 years and thousands of dollars broadening my horizons, I know what I would study, what classes I would take, what professors I would talk to. But I don't feel that secure and so I am doing something completely different. I enjoy learning, I really do. I spend my freetime reading texts about what I love and talking to other more educated people who've studied it. It's not why I went to college, and not why people told me to go to college ever since I was old enough to understand arguments about my future life prospects and career and etc. It's not why my aunt who's been a nanny for 20 years is going to com-college, It's not why my mom is becoming a CPA, it's not why my dad went to engineering school, etc.

aldanor 10y ago

It's not all about the green pieces of paper though.

mark_edward 10y ago
It's not. That's why I do what I do in my free time, the time of my life that's actually mine. The school and the work is just to reproduce myself day-to-day, year-to-year with the necessary resources. If I felt I had the material and financial freedom to do otherwise, I would.

mdpopescu 10y ago

In the last 2 years I've done about 30 interviews. (I like short-term contracts.) I've only been asked about a degree once, and the guy said "I don't have one either". I still took a few Coursera classes because computer science is just damn interesting to me :)

perseusprime11 10y ago

I agree with your argument and this is not just about American or Indian or Chinese education system. It is a fundamental mindset issue. I remember very vividly asking my mom why I should go to school and I dont remember the exact answer but it was on the lines of 'You need to do it so you can go onto get a job and do amazing things in life' so if you take go to school, get a job out of that sentence, you might as well say do amazing things but do you need to get a degree?

icc97 10y ago

One of the points of Coursera is that it isn't just for Americans. It's for everyone everywhere who don't have the same level of access to education that Americans have. So it doesn't matter if no more Americans want to learn there's billons in other countries who'd love to have access. I think the American education system is awesome the respect of opening their system up to the world. My native UK has basically nothing. Cambridge and Oxford have a few online courses, but barely even one UK university will even bother to run a course on Coursera.

j45 10y ago
Universal access to information wasn't pioneered by Coursera. Khan Academy was probably the Pokemon Go of that.
- icc97 10y ago
  I didn't mean to imply that Coursera was the first. Khan Academy is equally fantastic and MIT was also pushing open learning before Coursera too. Incidentally though I've found Coursera to be the first online course that inspired me to complete multiple courses.

robotresearcher 10y ago

The hubbub has subsided. This article is about Koller leaving Coursera to work on machine learning for an unrelated (gerontology) company. Every generation invents distance education and gets excited all over again. It's good every time, and each round leverages the new technology, but it quickly becomes the new normal.