World University: Difference between revisions

We're presently in the process of both envisioning and realizing a global, degree-granting (Ph.D., M.D., I.B., & Music SchoolSchools, etc.), free-to-students, open, virtual university and school, with great universities (e.g. MIT, Ivy League Schools, Stanford, U.C. Berkeley, Oxford, T.U.M., Sorbonne, L.M.U., Juilliard, Cambridge, Cal Tech, B.T.U., University of Chicago, etc.) as key players, using a Wikipedia model, and for everyone, and especially the developing world - that [[Help:Editing|anyone can edit]], primarily by adding, requesting or taking courses.

In many ways, World University is already open here. Add a course now. YouAnd you can take classes, for example, through MIT's Open Course Ware by clicking on the courses to the left, and learn, for example, what is the equivalent of a Masters in Physics or in "Society, Technology and Science" at MIT right now. MIT's Open Course Ware's listing contains around 1800 courses, with many video lectures already posted. Or you can post a very fun class about Mozart, massage, painting, calculus, sculpture or your area of interest or specialization. Also, create a page with what you know, what courses you'd like to teach or take, and what courses you've taken; Facebook is one way to do this. Use the links to the left to begin adding a free course, by language, country, degree, or to take a course.

For the time being, World University might offer degrees over a 10 year horizon. So, for example, World University might offer four courses, at first, in eachevery of these countriescountry and in many languages, to be engaged possibly on One Laptop Per Child and video-capable, programmable iPhone-like devices. And people in these countries, of course, can add their own courses to this Wiki, with knowledge they would like to share. In terms of possible degree-granting, Cal professors, for example, might also teach 4 courses at the undergraduate level, and 1 graduate level course, in the fall of 2009, for matriculated students, and with at-large participation possible, simply by having a camera in their classroom, and another instructor in a virtual world. A video-capable, iPhonemobile-likephone device would allow people who are illiterate to take and post courses to this wikiWiki. But credit and degree-granting isn't yet pragmatic. If two paths emerge in World University, - degree and open course warecourses, - MIT Open Course Ware is our model for degree-granting academic course work.

Almost every aspect of learning, thatwhich takes placeoccurs in a classroom or learning situation now, is possible to engage interactively in virtual worlds like Second Life today, and these virtual world technologies will develop a lot in the next few years.

World University and School may extend thousands of years into the future, potentially generating a remarkable archive of courses over time.

This multilingual University and School is open to almost all possible courses, including Ph.D.-related ones, and those in Medicine, Music (both Western and Indian classical, with possible instrumental training), Veterinary Medicine, Law, Electrical Engineering, etc., as well as 'harmonizing' and therapeutic courses in fields like yoga, Watsu {water shiatsu}, and acupuncture.

People ultimately 'train' their own bodyminds in whatever learning context, and World University may well facilitate this in new ways. World University furthers a familiar approach to knowledge generation where learning also occurs through various forms of dialogue and conversation, such as that which occurs in seminars and through libraries, books and journals. And World University will engage the far-reaching potentials of the Information Technology revolution to make learning and teaching - knowledge exchange, very widely construed - global and innovative in an ongoing wayways.

Envision learning, teaching and idea-exchange anew, building on the existing 'University.' and 'School' Here are some tools with which to do so: a wikiWiki, video, as well as interactive virtual worlds with group type chat, voice, and real time streaming video. :) Add your own.