Reduce noise in your photos, Should information be free?, What is Apple up to? Weekly Picks, and more…
Click here to listen to Real Tech 21
Click here to subscribe via iTunes
Stories/Topics:
Should all information just be “Free”?
Photo Tip of the Week: What is “noise” in a digital image? Can we avoid it? Can we correct it?
DIAMOND OCEANS POSSIBLE ON URANUS, NEPTUNE
McGraw Hill CEO Confirms the Tablet
Picks
Steve: Spybot Search and Destroy (http://www.safer-networking.org/)
Past Picks of the Week now available at: http://tinyurl.com/RTPicks
websites to visit:
http://getthenext.com
http://theprofessornotes.com
Show Voicemail: 814.808-JOE1 (814.808.5631)
Tony is: tony.pittman@gmail.com or twitter.com/tonypittman
Steve is: scmprofessor@gmail.com or twitter.com/scmprofessor and he blogs at http://theprofessornotes.com
3 Responses to “Real Tech 21: Rational Distemper and Nefarious Web Pages”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
February 7th, 2010 at 11:13 am
On a recent episode of Get The Next Real Tech, you asked the question, “Should information be free?” Based on what I heard about Harvard and MIT offering free classes, I extended the question a bit and asked myself, “Should information, namely higher education, be free?” The goal of these universities and others, according to the OpenCourseWare Consortium, is to advance formal and informal learning through the worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality education materials organized as courses. I struggle to understand their strategy.
Presently, the elite schools offering open access do not grant credentials, but that is currently being discussed. If these schools did grant credentials, wouldn’t that dilute the schools’ brands? Many aspiring business school students look at the acceptance rates as a signal of the value of the education. Other than just being altruistic, I don’t see why selective universities would risk their brands by offering credits for online versions of courses. Turning more people away has become an essential part the “business model” of many schools.
If elite schools like Chicago Booth offered the same MBA credential, it could cause serious confusion during job hunting. When you claim to be “Chicago Booth-educated,” nobody doubts that you have gone through two years of a rigorous course load and are a prestigious degree holder. If my school offered an equivalent online credential, we may be viewed in the same way as the University of Phoenix. (No offense to the University of Phoenix listeners, but it is not the same.) From a selfish standpoint, rampant certification may eventually breed mistrust between employees and employers and negatively impact our ability to command prestigious positions, credibility, and big salaries. So, no, I don’t think information should be free.
February 7th, 2010 at 12:30 pm
Interesting points. This gets into the debate that some have about the higher ed system being used as a “weed out” mechanism, limiting opportunities for those who are capable, but unable to obtain the resources required to get access to the information. I’d like to get Steve’s thoughts on this, since he is much closer to the educational angle of things.
February 10th, 2010 at 10:58 am
Tony – I ended up with a whole post on this subject! I can paste it here if you like, but the link is: http://targuman.org/blog/2010/02/10/should-information-be-free-or-giving-away-your-education/