Go to College hmmm [2015/12/11]

Michelle Obama rapped about going to college.

I do admire Michelle's mission to help people eat better and become more knowledgeable but I don't think going to college solve things. Learning actually changes things. Just going to college, well, leads to loss of money, time, and opportunities. Such tragedy is already witnessed by college kids being unemployed or underemployed, going back to live with their parents, and delaying marriage and other life choices. Plus, there is 1.2 trillion student that may lead to some kind of contagion.

Hence, it would have been better if Michelle rapped about other ways to learn without paying so much for college such as Khan Academy, Coursera, Edx, Udemy, Udacity, and more. These resources are mostly free and high quality and flexible.

So on the next level, it would be great if Michelle could rap about the free and great education resources available online already.

Thoughts about Scott Galloway's Interview [Part I] [2015/6/9]

In Masters of Business Podcast, Scott Galloway discusses trends and the future to come. Galloway predicts the following.

1. Companies will need both online and offline presence to be successful. Walmart and other traditional retailers may be catching up with Amazon.

2. People with the right skills will get more rewards while those who do not have these skills will struggle more.

3. Elite companies will create their own systems, separating themselves from the state.

4. Top schools will dominate the education market worldwide.

I agree with Galloway in that other firms are catching up with Amazon quite quickly. However, I think Amazon is really good at its game and will probably be fine. Just this month, I saw same-delivery, host give-away, and a more targeted Amazon offers. So I remain optimistic about Amazon [I also own Amazon shares].

I have been saying this for a while but I will repeat. The smart people will reap more fruits and the less smarter individuals will have less. This seems unfair but actually it is fair because you are being compensated for your abilities. In the old days, even though you are bright, you could not utilize your talents but now with internet and technology, you can arguably be more productive and earn more.

In terms of the less skilled people, well, it may seem like a bad situation but I disagree. As long as you have the discipline and you are dedicated, I think everyone will be fine. There are lot of free resources online. You can take courses online from the best schools online through Coursera and edX. You can learn foreign language using Duolingo. You can also learn coding through codeacademy.
Furthermore, just do a google search and you will find blogs and YouTube videos filled with great information.  Hence, as long as, you are willing to work hard, you will be fine. You will not be rich but you will have a reasonably decent life.

Yes, I agree that technology companies are building their own bubble by building state of the art campuses and providing majestic benefits. However, I disagree that they are fully separating themselves from the state. They just can't. How are they going to make money? Also, if you are isolated from the world, you will not have the insights and you will probably be disconnected from the customers, and eventually suffer losses. So I agree that firms are somewhat insulating their employees for higher productivity but I doubt they can be fully separated.

As an educator and researcher, I agree that the top schools will take a larger portion of the education market through online courses and satellite campuses. But given that these schools have to maintain somewhat of a brand exclusivity, I doubt that there will be an oligopoly. I do agree that they will earn tremendous amounts of money and force smaller schools out of business  but it is doubtful that they will dominate the education market. In addition, I expect other institutions to participate in the education market and compete with the colleges, which will actually drive up competition and quality. A good example is data camp and Udacity which is already providing awesome data analysis courses.

In sum, I strongly believe that the future will be more rich yet extremely competitive. Those with the right skills will leverage their abilities and make tons of money. The rest will be fine as long as they are willing to commit and keep improving themselves.




*from Snapshot Serengeti

Reforming education by supporting online courses

There is a battle between hedge fund managers and teacher unions about reforming education through charter schools.

It is sad that teacher unions are battling education reform...but we all know that teachers have other incentives besides giving good education.

However, there is a great hope. Already there are many online high quality education including KhanAcademy.org, Coursera.org, edX.org, and Udacity.com. This websites provide great education that I felt demanding a refund to all my schools. Thus, we should further support this online courses in three ways.

First, increase your human capital. Take the courses and become more capable, this will allow to earn more money, contribute more to society and people will naturally know how you learned great stuff from KhanAcademy, Coursera...

Second, raise awareness. Become an evangelist and recommend to others. Use facebook, twitter, any SNS to spread the word. This will increase the adoption of this online courses.

Third, donate! This online courses are not quite profitable for good reasons but they need money to operate. So please donate for a better world.

Eventually, the online courses will become very good and reliable (Coursera already verifies student by picture and typing), which will not only provide great education for everyone but further oust the bad teachers, as a result, increasing education quality and lowering cost :D

So please join me to support the online courses for a better education ^^

 


*From Penguin Watch

Unionization of Adjunct Professors

According to the WSJ, U.S. universities have relied on relatively cheap adjunct professors for cost control (just profit maximization). However, adjunct professors have started unionizing, demanding better compensation and benefits.

Well, here are my predictions.

1. Universities will try to kick out adjunct professors before they unionize. Universities are smart and unions are not really good for management....

2. Online courses will takeover. Universities will increasingly use Coursera, edX, and other online education. This is actually good for the universities as a whole since courses taught at Coursera and edX are really high quality and cost less then maintaining a professor.

3. PhD students will be teaching more! Tata! no surprise here. If the adjunct professors become too expensive then they will have PhDs teach more. This already happens in lot of state schools. We will see an increase in other schools as well. Unfortunately, PhDs are less likely to unionize because they need to graduate and are usually quite busy with their research....

So what happens to the excess supply of adjunct professors? Well, here are some options.

1. They can go teach in community colleges and other technical institutes with a cut in pay but they will raise the education quality there.

2. If they are adventurous, they can go teach abroad since the faculty quality is not so high compared to the U.S. The pay will be probably lower but the cost of living will be lower as well.
3. They can go teach at prestigious high schools and raise the education quality there.

4. If they are very good then they can start their blog, youtube channel, and twitter, and start a new teaching career online, earnings advertising revenues.