In Learning

I am admittedly not too familiar with economics, but I sense unfairness in a system that is closed to many yet results in inequities to those bright enough to persist despite financial hardship. This situation is not peculiar to the United States, and students around the world are beginning to stand up to be counted.

In Chile, Camilla Vallejo fights for a cheaper education and a government guarantee of education as an inalienable right. When my parents went to uni their education was free, my undergrad was subsidised by government loans. I always understood education to be a right, not a privilege, at any stage.

Martin Weller has a chapter devoted to A Pedagogy of Abundance in his book the Digital Scholar which I finished reading over the weekend. In it he makes the comparison between education and the music industry.

Scarcity responses, however, seek to re-establish, or retain, the existing economic model by introducing scarcity into the digital content.

And he uses this perspective examine how education may shift as a result of abundance. Are we seeing institutions founded on outdated and unsustainable models of education moving rapidly enough to cope with the changes tearing through society? May we one day see a day (again) when education is guaranteed by the state for those bright enough to enter into higher learning? Is this talk of radical abundance usurping the economics of scarcity a myth?

Education holds a transformational power for individuals. Nations are built on intellectual capital, not on a short term profit gain. I hope the sake of my children that they have access to educational opportunities like I have and a world where they can put their talents to good use.

I am in education, learning and working, because I believe education is for everyone.

Read on..

wearethe99percent:

Higher education is a bubble, run by the same kind of people who control our banks, our homes, our health.  My mother came to this country believing it was the only place where one’s hard work and education could allow you to transcend the bonds of race, gender, socioeconomic class…