If you’re like me, school was never a favorite part of your day. Waking up early to go somewhere
filled with a bunch of other people that didn’t want to be there. And some people there may
just not like you and aim to hurt you in some capacity. Your day is filled with lessons
that are simply meant to indoctrinate you with a specific set of information. This information
is meant to be later regurgitated on standardized tests. You learn this education from an ambivalent
teacher who is vastly underpaid and underappreciated. And unfortunately their performance often
reflects exactly that. *show clip*
I
have a theory for what might be the most optimal form of education. But first, let’s take
a look at the current mainstream forms of education.
There’s on-site education. And online education.
According to surveys, most students prefer online education these days. But does that
mean on-site education should be phased out?
Of course not, There’s no doubt that traditional on location education is majorly effective
when done right. There are the teachers out there that can make a tremendous impact on
your life. Shout out to professor applehans, his astronomy class changed my life and the
dude was just super cool in general.
But for most students, myself included, they would much prefer to receive their education
online from the comforts of their own home.
So does that mean the future of education is online? Well sort of, but not in the way
it’s currently set up. With the introduction of 2020, we saw that online education IS an
option when it’s necessary. There’s really no question on the benefits of online education.
The convenience factor is undeniable. Do you need a refresher course on a specific formula
or concept? Just pull it up and watch the videos on that lesson again.
You could always do this same thing with text books. But for some topics, the information
is updated every year. At least that’s what you’d think with how often school text books
are updated, making the previous versions less applicable. Nevertheless, updating information
online once to update over the previous information seems much wiser and more efficient than having
an entire surplus of sources floating around that may contain inaccurate information.
So what’s the problem with online education then? Well the issue is in its platform and
delivery method for consumption. *show clip*
It’s obviously not going to work by taking the same dispassionate teacher and throwing
a barrier of technology between them and the student.
Before I explain my theorized system of education, let me just say this is all highly speculative
and theoretical. There are problems with this system just like ANY system that could be
used.
So what is the answer? Well you’re on it right now. Or at least the base model for
how it would work.
It’s safe to say that between youtube and its mother company google, there are many
lifetimes worth of knowledge available to us. There is already a decent section of youtube
that’s been carved out in education. And I have friends that have literally qualified
themselves for 6 figure jobs solely through education on youtube. But the validity and
credibility of youtube education can be questionable at times. Valuable, vetted information is
only a tiny fraction of the content on the internet. and It’s very easy to get lost
in a sea of meaningless content when you’re seeking something particular. *show bo clip
behind this* So what exactly is my proposal for an alternative option?
In my opinion, we should have a platform that combines a number of different platforms’
features into a single streamlined, high quality, dedicated education system. One of the primary
aspect of this would be elements of youtube’s video hosting and live streaming capabilities
but it would be sooo much more than that. We would be adding additionals interactive
elements of engagement like projects, tasks, and games. But at its core, it exists solely
for the purpose of education. Content would exist that incorporates elements of entertainment
but there needs to be a lesson. A piece of information that is meant to be taken away
from it. These lessons would be correlated to specific exams or projects that would demonstrate
your efficiency in the field.
Content creation would be similar to youtube. Passionate people who are interested and knowledgeable
in subjects could submit their content to be viewed. There could be ads played over
the content to support the platform and its creators. And students who want to learn more
in the field could subscribe to that teacher. From there, they could watch the entire lesson
plan, essentially a youtube playlist that would be linked to the exams that demonstrate
your efficiency.
This program would also incorporate elements of apps that reward participation via unlocked
achievements and streaks that can be displayed as a badge of wisdom. This would give users
a sense of pride for their dedication and something to show for their time and effort.
We’ve seen time and time again that these rewards, minor as they may be, incentivize
people to use the app or program. And this could range from minor things like when you
learn the alphabet ranging all the way to when you create your own thesis statement.
This would essentially be gamifying the process of education. Perhaps you could even earn
degrees or certifications this way.
This app needs have a social element to it so there would need to be a friends list of
sorts. Of course there’s a voice aspect to this. This could be used for quick conversations
with specific teachers or your friends. And Similar to steam, you could see your friends’
achievements and their interests in educating themselves. You could challenge your friends
to see who could unlock the French Language Fluency achievements first.
However, we could also be looking at this from a more basic developmental sense at a
younger age. If this is used as an alternative to grade school, there could be a daily quest
of sorts that will be essential to progress through the day’s education. Completion
of the daily quests could potentially yield very minor rewards of some sort. We already
have a curriculum of what each child should know before they pass on to the next grade.
Why couldn’t we convert this into a required segment of the program. Each time they login
to the network, they could be given a few essential tasks to learn and will be tested
upon. From here they would are given a variety of interactive videos, games, projects, or
assignments that students could choose from. The algorithm could be programmed to learn
what styles of content work best with each student to help them progress faster and more
efficiently.
Students could progress at their own rate this way. Instead of having children all sit
through the same class at a predetermined rate, each child can can learn at their own
personalized rate.
One thing that, I believe, would potentially be an issue with online education would be
the lack of social skill development. That is why I believe students should be required
to have group projects with others as well. They could be in the form of group challenges
in the form of games or projects. I personally believe that I’ve learned a lot about how
to most effectively interact with other people through online games and environments with
other people. Luckily I was born in the last generation to experience life pre internet.
And I do believe in person social interactions should play a part of any young person’s
development as well but that’s another topic entirely. Point being, I believe there would
be a large social aspect to this education in various ways.
And since we’re already going over the deep end with the depth of this project, let’s
10x that figure and make this app accessible across multiple platforms. Let’s have a
mobile app that encompasses all or at least some of these features. Smart TV’s and gaming
systems could access this. Even good old macintoshes can use this app.
The best content creators on this program will be those that are able to create engaging
lessons wrapped up in an entertaining or interactive presentation. On top of this, most people
learn best through multiple forms of education, so many creators would have accompanying syllabi,
downloadable documents, engaging educational games and of course close captions for those
that want to learn via reading as well. And as Virtual reality advances, we can begin
to add an additional layer for those that want to learn how to do something in a hands
on manner. Imagine learning about a war while you’re standing in the middle of the battle.
Or learning to build a computer by actually building a computer via an educational game
of some sorts. Or learning about the anatomy of creatures, seeing them up close, with detailed
information appearing over each organ, explaining their functions. Students would be granted
an additional layer with which they can interact with teachers and other students with VR as
well.
I’m sure many people would disagree with this entire system but This next segment is
Really going to rustle some jimmies. It’s highly speculative and may be controversial
so for those people, prepare to be triggered.
To further incentivize usage of the platform and to compensate its creators, your achievements
throughout the platform can be turned into a token. These tokens can also be purchased
through the platform or exchanged into a currency of some kind. I’m still not sure how exactly
this would play out.
But This platform clearly would cost money to create and maintain so giving them an additional
way to monetize it with systems like this could be beneficial.
To encourage quality content from creators, these tokens can be given to them as a way
to tip them for their work or in exchange for one on one time with a teacher, who dictates
their price. Or it could be a system like patreon with additional content locked behind
a paid monthly subscription. They could perhaps even offer incentive bonuses when reaching
a certain amount of tokens received. And speaking of supporting content creators, do that algorithm
thing and like and subscribe.
Clearly this is all highly theoretical and speculative. I’m sure many of these concepts
would not work in a practical sense when its put into use. I can think of a few issues
myself. Would this system cost money? What is the cost? How do you prevent people from
cheating? The primary issue would be the inevitability of people finding ways to game the system
or monetize it somehow. And really the only way to combat this would be to have stricter
systems in place. Otherwise people could very easily create new accounts to quickly and
easily acquire tokens.
There would be any number of potential issues, especially with ways to corrupt the system
in some way. So there MAY need to be a cost of some kind associated with this. Or another
potential method of preventing this would be to require a photo id to create a new account.
The Chinese require a photo id for their battle.net account to play Blizzard games. They do this
to discourage people from using third party cheating, or malicious programs and I think
something similar COULD work for this program. And that’s just are just some of the many
problems that I’m sure would occur within a system like this.
Many of these things are currently available in some aspect or another. What I’d like
to see would be a system developed to streamline all of them together with the added aspects
previously mentioned. I’m not sure how realistic or plausible this would be. But as someone
that has a passion for education in a variety of different fields, this concept sounds like
an amazing program.
I’m already educating myself constantly through youtube. Once upon a time, youtube
was not even a thing. And now it’s become the modern day television set on steroids
and many people use It every single day. And as is, it’s used as a form of entertainment
as WELL AS education. So I don’t think it’s not out of the realm of possibility for something
to come along and claim the THRONE in education.
Especially with how bogged down youtube has become with mindless entertainment clickbait
or irrelevant political suggestions that I have no interest in whatsoever. Sometimes
I only want to be recommended videos where I at least learn something.
If we had an official, trusted program that could incorporate the best aspects of everything
we already have in the educational and creative spaces, we could be seeing something really
special.
Let me know in the comments what you think of this kind of education program. Clearly
it has its problems so feel free to suggest your ideas. Now seek out the nearest like
button on your device and gently press it. Thanks for watching. Cheers.