Monday 19 February 2001

Pic of the day: Study in your pajamas! And join hundreds of other students (in their PJ's too?)

e-ducation

I've been thinking about this for a while, and it sort of fell into place today. Stortinget, the Norwegian parliament, has held a hearing and the national radio news referred an interesting point. Namely that importing workers will not in the long run solve our labor shortage. They will bring their own families, which will also need the same services as Norwegians. The kids need teachers and the adults need doctors and eventually pensions. We haven't really solved anything.

Actually, that may be overstating it a bit. If we manage to import just the key people we lack the most, we should be better off. But that's kind of hard: Teachers, for instance, almost need some knowledge of Norwegian language and culture unless for the most specialized jobs. The same goes for doctors. Even a nurse had better understand the language or someone could die because of it. Still, we may import computer people. Programmers, web designers and such. Except they probably won't be eager to come to Norway, as long as America is still there. In fact, some of our own best programmers are leaving the harsh climate ... not just the winters, but the taxes too.

I think I have a better idea: E-ducation!

***

Yes, I mean e-learning, I just like to play with words. Distance learning over the Internet. The private operators in this market at least here in Norway are rather expensive. We already have nearly free colleges and universities here (woo hoo!) but it could become even better: Shuffle it all onto the Net, for every free man and woman to dig into! Of course, professors may not be available at all times, but students would presumably be able to confer with one another using electronic bulletin boards, newsgroups or mailing lists.

Now one might argue that this would be unfair: Those who have Net access are those who are already better off; the poor stay poor and the rich get rich. But this ignores the fact that Norway is already very much a wired country. I'm barely even middle class myself, and I have a rather heavy online presence. My brother who is a farmer living way out in the hills also has Net access. What he and others like him don't have is a nearby college. Yes, the system is more unfair now. Attending a university or even college is mainly for the young urbanites. If you have a job, or live outside the major towns, it becomes too expensive to even consider.

Shuffle onto the Net all the books, the lectures, the tests, the whole sixpack of knowledge. OK, you may need to compensate the people who actually wrote the stuff; I consider that a suitable expense for a state that wants to stay on top of the future. Do you have any idea what kind of creativity could be unleashed by making higher education really accessible? We're long past the time when arable land was considered a country's main resource. Yes, we'd still have some serious trouble if no one grew food for us, and don't you forget it. But today, the wealth of nations is mainly in the heads of its citizens.

Norway is lagging in productivity growth, compared with our neighbors. This happens despite our extensive wiring. History shows us that education is followed by invention and progress. If we want a better future, we should educate, and continue to educate. And it sure seems more ethical than vaccuuming the third world for expertise.

***

As for my humble self, I'm still waiting. Oh, I pick up bits and pieces online ... for instance, that's how I learned to code my own webpages. But no real studies. I'm not willing to pay an arm and a leg to the private schools, and I don't find any online public colleges, even though I know that there are some projects going somewhere. The way I understand those, however, they are just online supplements for students who are already enrolled in the big brick houses.

But I'm still up here waiting, for the miracle to come ... :)