BEDA! day one (yes, I'm joining in late)
Youtuber Dan Brown's video has gotten quite a response form the Youtube community, heres the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P2PGGeTOA4
Yes, I know, it was posted over a moth ago. Yes, I know, theres already been quite a response. Bud I don't care. So here I go.
To begin with, Dan says the value of information has gone down. As mikelah pointed out in his video, that is in fact not true: the cost of obtaining information has gone down. not the value of the information itself. ("a cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing" -Oscar Wilde)
Next, Dan gives us an inaccurate history lesson. no offense there Dan, but as Mikelah pointed out, it's wrong. Dan, you say kings had the knowledge- No. Kings had land, money, power. Charlemange, ruler of the great Holy Roman Empire, was illiterate. Yet he's regarded as one of the greatest kings of all time. The Church was actually who had the knowledge and who opened schools. Also, what do you mean by "knowledge"? that needs to be clarified. The king didn't have knowledge in how to heal wounds, build castles, make weapons- but he had easy access to people who did know that.
Next dan, you describe what the internet has done to make life easier. no disagreement there.
And half way through the video, this is where you get crazy and frankly, incorrect. I have NEVER herd any good school advocate that we need to memorize facts and spit them out, and that that is a sign of being smart. But yes some schools do- and it's not education that needs to change, it's those schools. It's hard to respond to your video here because your so all over the place, so I'm just going to give you my theory. As thunderfoot said, having a physics text book doesn't make you a physicist. Having a blog doesn't make me a writer. Owning a camera doesn't make you a photographer. And owning a computer with access to the internet in which you can google "how to preform root canal" doesn't make you a dentist. If i were to apply for a job as a doctor, and i said "well, i didn't go to medical school, but i can just put my patient's symptoms into Web MD and figure out what they have", no one with a sane mind would hire me. But if i said "i have spent the past six years studying medicine, the human body, and disease at Harvard, and have spend another year studying real people in hospitals, I have learned from the greatest surgeons in the world", they'd hire me no problem. Why? because they know that i know what I'm talking about. this all begs the question: What's the difference? because of what happens in medical school. It's not enough to learn facts about symptoms of diseases, or to learn facts about medicine, or facts about the human body. to be a good doctor, you have to learn and understand how these things work together, and how to APPLY them to real life. that's the key there- being able to apply and and understand facts. I've never been to medical school, but I don't feel it's risky to say that's what they're teaching doctors: how to put symptoms together, how to apply things, how to understand things. If, for some reason, they are not then thats what needs to change. What I'm trying to say here is that we don't just need to know the facts, we need to know how/when/where to apply them.
Secondly, the human brain is like a muscle. After we learn a concept in math, for example, we have to practice that concept again and again to really learn it. it's not enough to google the concept. we have to keep our minds active, thinking, discussing, learning "facts", writing, e.t.c. We can't just turn to google every time we need an answer or else our brains will become worse at reading, comprehension, etc. In this sense, having facts memorized actually makes life easier, believe it or not. for example, (i live in nyc), before switching schools i memorized the subway stops for my new commute. yes, i could of looked at the map each morning, or googled it every morning. but that would talk to long. the same applies to people in specialized professions. For lawyers example, they have to memorize a ton of laws, legislature, regulations, etc based on the field of law they practice. yes, they could look up those laws via computers every day, but that would take forever and they'd loose time for thinking about the case to having to look up basic laws for the case. So memorizing at least some facts is unavoidable simply for time purposes.
Heres another point for you: Do you REALLY think we can move that far in math and science by just googling everything? someone has to PUT those facts on google. someone has to know facts well enough to be able to figure out new facts. I can't cure cancer no matter how much i google. To try to cure cancer, i'd have to learn everything about it and understand it- that would inevitably involve me memorizing it.
Based on how you describe your education, i do have to agree that i think your school seems not so great on preparing you for the real world. But Dan, i've gotta point out- How, exactly would you know? I'm still in school so i can't say i know what the real world is like, but if your in college and have never gone into "the real world", how do you know whats useful and whats not? also, you have to realize your not the average college student. You ALREADY HAVE a job, in a way. you have your niche. you have your purpose. but most people aren't like that. also, your job doesn't require much more then a excited, good, determined personality (although maybe some education on film or social media wouldn't hurt- why don't you take classes in producing, film, or social media?). But aside form the job of being a public figure, most jobs require dome kind of degree. But from what you say, i can agree there: I don't believe in the 200 students in a lecture hall writing down a power point method. while i think SOME teachers may be capable of being great lecturers to 200 students, i think small classes in which you discuss things and are able to talk to the teacher are more effective, and the rest of the world does recognize that. I'm not sure if you know (really, I'm not sure), but most schools boast about how small their class sizes are and what the teacher-to-student ratio is. For example, in NYC badly ranked overcrowded public schools usually are stuck with 30-40 people per class, but small private schools that are some of the best in NYC boast an average class size of 12. So having small, hands on classes that include discussions are clearly more effective and schools know that- but the problem is financially, its hard to have those classes. It's the schools that need (firstly they need more money) to change, not "education." We already know the best kind of educations- it's just a matter of having the money and ability to change to that.
This is getting way to long, so i am going to wrap it up with this: Easer said then done. Changing education isn't something we can just do by understanding the world is changing. it means reordering lessons, training teachers differently, rewriting textbooks. it's not going to happen if people "understand the world is changing." It's going to take a good 30 years before education catches up with the rest of the world and these changes are complete. Dan, you may shout out that that means it's going to die- but that's not true, it never will die. people will never cease to go value going to college, in fact the value of a college degree is rising insanely. the reverse of what you say is happening is what is happening- the value and importance of college degrees is rising every year, not falling.
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