The United Nations recently announced the launch of the world’s first tuition-free online university. Named the University of the People, the school will open up access to higher education for many individuals around the world.
The UN explains:
For hundreds of millions of people around the world higher education is no more than a dream, Shai Reshef, the founder of the University of the People, told reporters. They are constrained by finances, the lack of institutions in their region, or they are not able to leave home to study at a university for personal reasons.
Mr. Reshef said that this University opened the [...]

We’ve written about a variety of learning tools that have been popping up on the web in recent months from institutional examples like Academic Earth and iTunes University to more grassroots models like Moontoast and the School of Everything, causing us to rethink the ways we view the availability and cost of education. And while these online alternatives are freeing knowledge from the confines of the classroom, we’re not ready to call traditional college educations obsolete, for the time being at least. Which is why we were particularly excited by Flat World Knowledge, a company that hopes to revolutionize higher learning [...]

Union Square Ventures recently held a session on Hacking Education. The goal of the gathering was to discuss the impact of the web on education, and how to innovate current educational systems. Jeff Jarvis was there, and offers up the entire “Google U” chapter from his What Would Google Do? book, which explores education in the age of Google. For more on the Hacking Education, check out the site, or follow the conversation on Twitter.
Jarvis begins:
Who needs a university when we have Google? All the world’s digital knowledge is available at a search. We can connect those who want to [...]

Richard Buckland is a computer science lecturer at the University of NSW who has pioneered the use of YouTube videos as learning aids at Australian universities. Seeing a need for more challenging computing classes in high schools, Buckland is now offering a class for high school students based almost entirely on the recordings of his first-year computing lectures.
High school students who want to learn more about computing and mathematics can take this advanced, first-year university level class for free. While studying the video lectures at home, participants will only have to come to the university one night a week for [...]

Academic Earth is an organization with a simple mission – “giving everyone on earth access to a world-class education.” Obviously say that and doing that are two very different things, but with the rise of technology and free content, the group wants to create an educational ecosystem that identifies the barriers to learning and goes beyond them. Not only will Academic Earth be providing lectures from top scholars – a quick perusal of the site finds coursework from institutions such as Stanford, MIT and Yale – but they hope to build an interactive community around the information to further increase its [...]

Some new research is showing how always available, multi-media lectures may be more effective than the old fashioned live kind. New Scientist reports on a study conducted by the State University of New York in Freedonia which shows that being able to review a lecture multiple times leads to improved grades.
Those results are not particularly news at all. Of course having access to a lecture, and studying and taking notes on it will help a student retain information better (the other group only experienced the live lecture once, in real time). What this experiment does do, is give strength to [...]

We’ve come across an interview by Holy Ghost Megazine with some members and participants from The Temporary School of Thought. They’re a group of squatters, formerly housed in an opulent London mansion who have started up a unique free school promoting open source learning. The interview gives some interesting insight into the unique dynamics and benefits of collective living and learning.
About the school:
HG: What exactly is the Temporary School of Thought?
LB: A school based on the ideal of the exchange of free knowledge, letting people come in, attend various workshops. If you feel there is something you would like to [...]

We’ve written a lot lately on the idea of alternative and open source education. Independent schools and learning centers are frequently being created to serve life-long learners and those who may not be able to afford the rising costs of higher education. And of course, there’s the ever widening pool of educational resources available online. Besides the sea of disparate knowledge comprising the web, there are also numerous instances of more formal offerings of educational materials, such as MIT’s open courseware.
Author John Robb, who has done extensive studies on networks, communities and international relations foresees this critical mass of freely [...]

A recent article in the New York Times highlighted a really great organization called NYC Resisitor. It’s a group of tech hackers who have gotten together and created a workshop in downtown Brooklyn for all kinds of like-minded tinkerers to meet up, work on projects and learn from each other. Called a “creative community for nerds” by one of it’s members, Resistor provides a convivial club-like atmosphere (complete with drink serving robot) along with space and tools to create high-tech projects like circuit board cockroaches and a sweatshirt with built in camera. To help pay the rent, they also teach [...]

Interesting news from the worlds of citizen journalism and open source learning – the Oakland Press has just announced that they will be opening a classroom for citizen journalists. The newspaper will train anyone who’s interested in news writing, videography, photography and reporting basics. Once participants have finished their training they’ll have the chance to get published online or in the print version. More ambitious citizen journalists can also work their way up into becoming a freelancer for the paper.
Jeff Jarvis comments on what this new model means:
So the education and the relationship goes well past the classroom, of course. [...]