DIY Education
 
Everyone knows that you can live the dream. You can earn a BA at home in your footie pajamas or sitting at your computer desk in your Payless pumps while "working" for the man.

This alternative mode of education is interesting on some levels and I'm sure some universities offer online initiatives of similar quality to their on-site degrees (The New School takes a lot of pride and its online offerings and I would wager that students taking these classes put in the same--if not more--work than their on-site counterparts). But I am wary of the for-profit ventures I see advertised every time I log in to Facebook.

Some online models of education do have promise. MIT opencourseware and iTunesU let us all learn algorithms from MIT's finest or Philosophy from the professors over at Oxford without trekking to Massachusetts or the UK, having stellar SAT scores, or the cash to fork over for tuition.  Of course, you also don't get the degree, the credentials, or the associate benefits. But isn't education about knowledge?

Also interesting is the new abundance of community based forms of education. Skillshares are becoming more common in my part of the world and something in me gushes over the idea. Brooklyn Brainery offers classes for $25 on topics ranging from gardening to meteorology. Classmates pool their knowledge in discussions mediated by class leaders. Brokelyn features those good folks as well as classes from places like the Brooklyn Kitchen,where things like local food and home brewing meet alternative education.

Brooklyn Skillshare  and others such as Grand Opening have been hosting days and weekends of communal classes where students are asked to barter skills or cheap, readily available goods. Classes have included kombucha brewing and kite making.

The Really, Really Free Market  has been doing this sort of thing for years as part of its work towards a new economic model: sharing.

Shouldn't the sharing of knowledge be what education is all about?  Is the answer in reworking the federal loan system or in reworking education as a whole? I wouldn't hold my breath for either, but the answer is probably both.