Education with an innovative attitude

Image Source: EdX

In the book Inside Real Innovation the authors claim that, at the present time, we are in the middle of an innovation crisis because real innovation is not happening, at least not the one that would make a sizable impact in the world. They even go as far as to affirm that behind all 
bubbles or crises that nearly collapsed the world's economy, like the one that took place in 2008, there is a real crisis of innovation. 

In terms of Education, perhaps, we should consider examples from people like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and many others who have not finished their university education. They most likely abandoned their studies because it clearly did not fit their interests and vision of the future. Some of them might have thought it was a waist of their time dealing with a system that did not reward actual learning, but rather simply honored obtaining a particular grade. Or they might have just decided that it was time to face the real world ahead of time. 

Experts agree that nowadays most people who need to look up a word or the definition of something significant to their everyday lives commonly use Wikipedia substantially more than other sources. That is why this online encyclopedia is the largest and most popular in the world. Based on a recent announcement about security within Wikimedia, the idea that encrytped https browsing for all their projects will be a default option only if users are logged in, seems especially relevant to them when they realize it comes with a persistent feeling that someone seems to be particularly

EdX offering interesting new tech courses

EdX is a nonprofit project founded by MIT and Harvard universities that was created with the purpose of offering a free university-level online educational platform. Most of the new courses will start this upcoming fall of 2013 as the project is expanding into more interesting courses than the seven initial ones offered in the fall of 2012. That's why enrollment has continued to increase and is expected to stay that way based on the quality and relevance of the materials and courses being developed. 

After taking a glance at the new courses, and for someone having a special interest in tech education, it is clear that the new subjects are appealing to a somewhat more tech oriented audience. For instance, they are starting to offer courses like Software as a Service, Solar Energy, Innovation and Commercialization, Fundamentals of Neuroscience, among others.  In addition, they also have less techie oriented themes like Fundamentals of Clinical Trials, Health and Society, A Global History of Architecture or Copyright.

According to EdX president Anant Agarwal, their mission is to dramatically increase access to education for students around the world, and to offer them top level educational materials in the form of structured massive open online courses, or MOOC's. Even if no credit is being offered towards an MIT degree at the moment, Mr. Agarwal argues that students can get other forms of credit, like using the certificates they receive after completion to help them get admission to MIT or other universities since these courses are being licensed to higher-ed institutions. 

In a may 1st 2013 interview with the online learning publication Degree of Freedom, he stated: