by Derek Viger

Created on: May 25, 2009   Last Updated: June 04, 2009

If there is a way for people to get what they want for free or cheaply they will find it. Even before the internet put a wealth of movies and music up for download, there was always that shady guy selling bootlegs from the trunk of his car. Just like technology made bootlegging music and movies easier, the internet has made a do-it-yourself education substantially easier.

Two months ago Union Square Ventures hosted an event highlighting the way technology and the internet impacts education. The event entitled Hacking Education brought together academics, entrepreneurs, educators, and administrators. The consensus; though outside the classroom learning has always been possible it has never been easier. How does the internet do this? David Wiley explains.

from Union Square Ventures:

David Wiley broke education into these components, 1) content provisioning, 2) research - conducted, archived, and disseminated, 3) help provided to a student with a question on the content, 4) a social life, and 5) issuing credentials.

Historically all of these components were bundled together in the experience of on-site education in a K-12 or University context. Already today, it is possible for a student to get many of these services outside the walls of a traditional educational institution.

One of the most interesting stories from the conference comes from a discussion of the need for an accredited education, or really the shrinking importance of.

from Union Square Ventures:

Rob Kalin kicked the discussion on the separation of learning and credentialing into high gear with this story.
I graduated high school with a D minus average. ...My guidance counselor said "drop out of high school, you'll have an easier time getting into college if you just get a GED." I [decided] to graduate with this D minus and see what it does for me. I didn't get into any accredited school . I got into a diploma program in an art school in Boston, and it was near MIT. ... I used the art school to make a fake ID to go to MIT. Someone said [college is] expensive. I said no, it's free, you just won't get credit for it.

Today, no one is going to ask Rob for his college transcript. His credentials are the companies he has created. Not every student can be so cavalier about the lack of a diploma, but the web is having an interesting impact on the value of credentials. In an earlier era, it was very difficult to evaluate a student's work directly, so a grade from an accredited institution served as a proxy.

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