Education, Schooling, and the Power of the Internet

Most of us pay hundreds of thousands just to sit in a classroom and have to listen to monotonous and uninspiring lecturers whose methods and ideologies are dated and backward. And yet here, a video you can watch on YouTube for free of charge, a lecture from Harvard on ethics/morality (just one of the many available online). Ivy league quality education accessible to anyone who has internet.

This first episode is a brilliant discussion, very informative and thought-provoking. But of course the lectures available online aren't limited to these elitist-esque Ivy League institutions. There are many others and some I've even discussed here like TED talks. I've referenced many of my blog posts to TED talk videos especially on my political philosophy blog HarryLeaks like the one where Paul Romer talks about Charter Cities or when David Cameron talks about the Post-Bureaucratic Age (pretty relevant to this post cause he talks about how the information revolution created by the internet can make governments more transparent). And there's even more, thousands of lectures available online. In another one of my posts, I actually referenced Yuri Maltsev's speech about big governments.
Yes, many times the internet is used to look at stupid videos of funny cats, play games, enjoy the liberty of watching pornography. But you see, in spite of those uses for leisure, the internet is one of the most powerful means of spreading information and of course education. It also celebrates our freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom to voluntarily trade and exchange goods or information. And this is something we have to protect (see also: why we have to keep governments away from the internet)
The bottom line here, I guess, is I feel like I was right there in that lecture hall in Harvard. What if in the future we can actually even join the discussions? What if one day kids in impoverished areas will one day have access to Ivy League education? The internet is just so powerful and the possibilities are limitless.
Most schools are prisons, disguised as a source of "education" and marketed as "the best gift you can pass on to your children". But if we allow the freedoms available in the internet to flourish, real education will become more accessible and more affordable and eventually those youth concentration camps disguised as "schools" will be abolished.
Technically, I just attended a brilliant lecture in Harvard. You think I can put that in my resume?
Haha. I don't know I'm bored and procrastinating. I should be working on something right now. I think I'm a clinically chronic procrastinator and should be exempted from deadlines. My output is superior anyway regardless of when I submit it. haha . Oh well, time to work and get it over with. Hope you enjoyed the blog post and come back for more. :)