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Old 09-17-2015, 07:30 PM
 
10,226 posts, read 7,487,948 times
Reputation: 23155

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Quote:
Originally Posted by AmandaNerdBot View Post
I believe most of the stuff they teach you in school you can learn on the Internet. Pretty much everything they teach you in school you can learn on the Internet. The only exceptions to this rule would be something that actually requires hands on training like the following:

1) Becoming a professional athlete (yeah you can't learn how to become a pro-basketball or pro-Football player just by using the Internet)...

2) Some trades like plumbing, being an automechanic, being an electrician, etc.

But other than that, pretty much everything else you can learn on the Internet.

This is why I think school is mostly obsolete to people who actually have Internet skills. I haven't learned a damn thing in university that I couldn't simply learn on the Internet. So I really think university was a waste of time for me.

I majored in psychology, by the way. I didn't think majoring in psychology was a total waste of time because I did learn some interesting facts about my psychology. But too much of the stuff they taught me in psychology was just nonsense and a waste of time.

I finished three years of psychology. I decided not to finish my forth year of psychology mainly because I felt that it was a waste of time and money for me.

I really think going to university is mostly pointless these days since almost everything they teach you in university can be learned on the Internet.

I really think university is a waste of time.

If you thought it was worth it, you are entitled to your opinion, but I honestly thought it was just useless to me.
Boy, you really didn't learn much in college, if you didn't learn the purpose of it.

You didn't get a degree. This will matter in your career, since many jobs require a degree. Or even if you get a job, you may miss out on a promotion because of no degree.

A degree shows people that you have discipline to start and finish something, and that you can achieve goals. A dropout? Just the opposite. (I'm a dropout, too.)

Going to college isn't just to learn how to DO something for a living, although that is the primary purpose, IMO. But it's also to broaden your horizons, learn about different things, obtain a broad education, learn to listen to other views, learn to discuss different things on a high level without getting your pants in a wad, and social skills.

Reading about something on the internet is not at all the same thing as a college education, where you sit in different classes and converse with others about the topic at hand, are forced to be tested on what you have learned, and are forced to learn things you may have no interest in. The deadlines, the finals, the tests, the discussions, the reading, the practice of things (such as science lab), the benefit of a knowledgeable professor have a discussion with you. All these things matter.
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Old 09-17-2015, 10:21 PM
 
Location: Earth
4,505 posts, read 6,453,854 times
Reputation: 4962
You could use the internet to construct proper sentences, grammar, spelling and writing a compelling article without restating your position one sentence after another.
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Old 09-18-2015, 02:49 PM
 
Location: Ohio
229 posts, read 381,154 times
Reputation: 429
No. There are many things you cannot learn online. One example is time management. In college, you have to meet deadlines. That experience will help you deal with the stress of deadlines in the real world. You don't have to set any deadlines if you're teaching yourself.
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Old 09-18-2015, 02:53 PM
 
Location: Sinking in the Great Salt Lake
13,139 posts, read 22,705,438 times
Reputation: 14115
Quote:
Originally Posted by AmandaNerdBot View Post
I believe most of the stuff they teach you in school you can learn on the Internet. Pretty much everything they teach you in school you can learn on the Internet. The only exceptions to this rule would be something that actually requires hands on training like the following:

1) Becoming a professional athlete (yeah you can't learn how to become a pro-basketball or pro-Football player just by using the Internet)...

2) Some trades like plumbing, being an automechanic, being an electrician, etc.

But other than that, pretty much everything else you can learn on the Internet.

This is why I think school is mostly obsolete to people who actually have Internet skills. I haven't learned a damn thing in university that I couldn't simply learn on the Internet. So I really think university was a waste of time for me.

I majored in psychology, by the way. I didn't think majoring in psychology was a total waste of time because I did learn some interesting facts about my psychology. But too much of the stuff they taught me in psychology was just nonsense and a waste of time.

I finished three years of psychology. I decided not to finish my forth year of psychology mainly because I felt that it was a waste of time and money for me.

I really think going to university is mostly pointless these days since almost everything they teach you in university can be learned on the Internet.

I really think university is a waste of time.

If you thought it was worth it, you are entitled to your opinion, but I honestly thought it was just useless to me.
The internet is great for "Reader's Digest" versions of many varying subjects but if you operate under the assumption that pretty much everything is on the internet you will miss out on most of the world's knowledge.
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Old 09-18-2015, 03:38 PM
 
Location: San Marcos, CA
674 posts, read 606,047 times
Reputation: 792
Quote:
Originally Posted by capoeira View Post
The average person also isn't going to be able to take advanced math classes at a university and pass them either. Also most people are not capable of learning professional level mathematics even if they take classes at the best university.

The math that is required for 98% of college majors can easily be learned on the internet. For example look at the math requirements for an Electrical Engineering degree. Only 19 credits, 3 semesters of Calculus, 1 semester of statistics and 1 semester of discrete mathematics. All of these beginning college math subjects can be learned on the internet before enrolling in the classes.

http://www.engr.wisc.edu/cmsdocument...m-Handbook.pdf

My nephew told me he had a dreadful stats professor and no one knew what he was talking about. His solution was to find an online class on Youtube that covered an entire semester at UC_Berkeley with an excellent professor. He was able to get an A in that class while many students depending on the professor's class lectures were totally confused.
That's introductory stuff, though (sort of like saying that the English literature I'd need to know to be a mathematician can be learned online). That's nowhere near the amount a person would have to know to be a mathematician. It's also using an actual class, so there's some structure to the material being presented. I don't have a problem with there being some online courses, especially for people who learn better from books than from lectures. I've even taught some of these. Good ones still require a professional mathematician deciding what material goes into the course and where and what exercises should be handed out. It's usually best to have a grader, too, as a lot of low-level math learning comes from doing problem sets.

Also, my point was not that just anyone can go to school to become a serious mathematician. It's just that it's a requirement to go. The really advanced stuff can't be learned online. Even the moderately difficult stuff is much harder. The people who are good enough at math to study the hard stuff are still amost never good enough to learn it on their own.

I'm sure the same is true in other disciplines. The internet is good for supplementing a more guided approach to learning, but it's not a magic bullet.




Not really realted, but...

One other thing I like about structured degree programs is that they force people to study things outside of their majors. It can be difficult to convince people to become well-rounded by choice, and a lot of people will fight tooth-and-nail to avoid learning anything about history or literature or culture or anything like that. Also, it's not necessarily ideal to make one of those subjects your only major (but a dual major is not a bad idea). One shouldn't have to choose between majoring in history or art and being completely ignorant of either subject.

I had a really good Chinese literature professor when I was in college. I learned a lot that I wouldn't have found just noodling around online. I don't really use that knowledge for anything in particular, but I'm glad I have it; it helps me appreciate life and some of the Chinese influences on my own culture. Plus, learning about other cultures is important in a world where so many think of the geopolitical scene as the U.S. and Europe versus the barbarians everywhere else.
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Old 09-18-2015, 04:28 PM
 
943 posts, read 1,315,128 times
Reputation: 900
Quote:
Originally Posted by AmandaNerdBot View Post
I believe most of the stuff they teach you in school you can learn on the Internet. Pretty much everything they teach you in school you can learn on the Internet. The only exceptions to this rule would be something that actually requires hands on training like the following:

1) Becoming a professional athlete (yeah you can't learn how to become a pro-basketball or pro-Football player just by using the Internet)...

2) Some trades like plumbing, being an automechanic, being an electrician, etc.

But other than that, pretty much everything else you can learn on the Internet.

This is why I think school is mostly obsolete to people who actually have Internet skills. I haven't learned a damn thing in university that I couldn't simply learn on the Internet. So I really think university was a waste of time for me.

I majored in psychology, by the way. I didn't think majoring in psychology was a total waste of time because I did learn some interesting facts about my psychology. But too much of the stuff they taught me in psychology was just nonsense and a waste of time.

I finished three years of psychology. I decided not to finish my forth year of psychology mainly because I felt that it was a waste of time and money for me.

I really think going to university is mostly pointless these days since almost everything they teach you in university can be learned on the Internet.

I really think university is a waste of time.

If you thought it was worth it, you are entitled to your opinion, but I honestly thought it was just useless to me.
You can't conduct laboratory experiments, which is part of learning science, on the Internet. (Unless you count computer simulations. Which I don't.)
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Old 09-20-2015, 09:04 AM
 
358 posts, read 281,483 times
Reputation: 240
First year or two of college is waste with all the nonsense classes required to take
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Old 09-20-2015, 11:12 AM
 
6,293 posts, read 10,529,261 times
Reputation: 7504
I'm going to guess that the Internet will be unable to teach you anything unless you learn to read and comprehend.
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Old 09-20-2015, 05:43 PM
 
15,444 posts, read 15,425,363 times
Reputation: 21704
For people like you, who seem to have no respect for the concept of education, maybe it is a waste of time. You seem to be looking at it in a very nuts-and-bolts utility kind of way. If you learned nothing much in three years, I'd guess either you went to a poor school or you were a poor student - especially since the only thing you claim to have gotten out of psychology pertains to you.

However, here are some things you're not considering, off the top of my head:

Most people have no idea how to weed the good from bad on the internet.
Attention span appears to be worse with internet material.
Part of college is learning out to work on deadlines.
Part of college is the experience of making presentations to a class.
Part of college is the dialogue of exchanging ideas.
Part of college is finishing something to conclusion.
Part of college is learning to take notes, which is not as obvious as it sounds.
Part of college is learning to do research beyond typing on a keyboard.
Part of college is learning to write papers.
Part of college is being pushed into subjects that you might not have tried on your own.
Part of college is interacting with people a lot smarter than you are.
Part of college is, ideally, specific feedback and criticism.
Part of college is, ideally, interacting with a greater diversity of people.
Part of college is, ideally, living on your own for the first time, often stuck with people you may not be crazy about.

And you seem oblivious to all that.
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Old 09-20-2015, 06:02 PM
 
Location: Earth
4,505 posts, read 6,453,854 times
Reputation: 4962
^^^And part of college is repetition...
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