Youtube University

[Pickle Girl Fanboy]

Youtube University

A self-sufficient, self-sustaining education model.

Most people in the world today do not have the resources - money, spare time, adequate food and water, access to technology, or freedom from disease - to pursue an education.  How can we fix this?  We could spend trillions of dollars on charity and give away an education to SOME of these people, but why not develop a business model where we can educate ALL of them while making enough money to expand our operations?

Here is such a model.  Youtube University: a self-sufficient, self-sustaining education model.

Imagine this.  A professor and his assistants - graduate students and assorted gophers - conduct classes and teach students in the classroom the same way they do at any other university, but here, at Youtube University, all the lessons, all the speeches and lectures are captured on video and archived on a website.  The website streams the professorial media and makes money from ads.  The professor, besides being paid by the university from his students tuition, gets money from the ad revenue generated by his media, which means that the more popular his lessons (the better teacher he is), the more money he makes.

But what about textbooks, you ask?  They're free at Youtube University.  You can download them as PDF or HTML or TXT, print them off, and do whatever you want with them.  If you think you can improve the textbooks, contact the Publishing Department at YU, and they'll review your suggestions, decide their worth by open debate and vote, and maybe include them in the newest version of the textbook.

If a professor wrote his own textbook and wants to make money from its distribution, then he is welcome to pepper ads throughout his textbook.  If his textbook is biased, then this will be reflected in it's popularity.

Finally, Youtube University has it's own collection of internet forums, wikis, and chat systems.  Each professor has one of each, where he and his assistants can help their online audience and post helpful things like guides, walkthroughs, Frequently Asked Questions, and whatever they deem useful.  The professors get a share of their online ad revenue, so, once again, they have motivation to be effective teachers.

This is Youtube University, rough sketch.  It can be adapted, without any major modifications, to a primary or secondary schools system, and it could be used to augment an existing school system.

If it is used to augment an existing school system, I imagine every student would be issued profiles on the web site by the school administrators, so they cannot create alternate, anonymous profiles and harass other students.  In such a system, each student's profile should also be password protected, and there should be a motivation to not share your password and a motivation to not steal other student's passwords.

This model is ideal for those who do not function well in conventional education systems.  Minorities who do not speak the dominant language can be educated from across the world by native speakers of their own language in libraries and internet cafes, without having to build, maintain, and staff large institutes in every country in the world.  Not only that, but this idea would be a blessing for overachievers, social misfits, and all the brilliant oddballs out there.  All it would require is an internet connection and maybe a private computer or laptop for the online students.

Parts of this idea exist already.  Open source textbooks, internet schools, user-created content, online communities dedicated to sharing knowledge.  As far as I know, I'm the first person to put them all together while intending to augment or replace our current education system.

Youtube University would be self-sufficient and self-sustaining once it starts, but it would require substantial start-up money.  It may be easier to use it to augment an existing school system at first, and then branch out into other classes when it makes money.

I call it Youtube University because it brings to mind a popular website, but it doesn't have to be youtube who hosts the videos.

Since I don't have the resources to make this idea happen, I'm giving it away for free to anyone and everyone to do whatever they want with it, provided they don't claim they thought it up first.

[Pickle Girl Fanboy]

What do you guys think?

[Kaijyuu]

What do you guys think?

tl;dr

[Dokurider]

Not a bad idea at all, although it would be a real bitch getting over the stigma of online schools. ITT Tech and College in PJs, anyone?

[R999]

This has been something Apple (apple.com, iphone, ipad, mac, ipod)  has been doing over the years. It's called iTunes U. You can download free lectures from iTunes from some universities like Stanford.  In years to come, many textbooks would be integrated with our mobile devices. We will get there someday.

Heh, in fact, some top universities in the US are already using Youtube as a channel, like Carnegie Mellon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTugjssqOT0

(^ Randy Pausch's lecture on Time Management, one of my all time favorite, incredibly inspirtational  -- if you haven't watched this yet, you are missing out).

[Pickle Girl Fanboy]

I have this feeling that, although this idea is good, it will never work in the USA.  I think I have to approach a nation whose gov't is more interested in what their people need than what oil lobbyists and financiers and conservative Christians want.  Hugo Chavez says he speaks for the poor, maybe I should try to contact his offices, see if they're interested?

[Pickle Girl Fanboy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6U-i4gX ... PL&index=0
^Baw, I can't rip it with file2hd.  It just craps out a third of the way through.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p ... stractions
^FYI, I'm trying to rip this entire series of lectures

http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses
^Which I found here.

If anyone could find a ripper that works, or, even better, download a bunch of them (or even just one every few days) and post them somewhere in 7zip or rar format, then I will attempt to find some hex edits for the r/s/m or ability formula of your choice.

Edit

Think I found a direct download.
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-e ... s/embed01/
Does anyone else think this stuff is freaking awesome?