Category: LRNGO

Clash of the Titans: Online vs Classroom Learning

Posted on by David C. Brake

Welcome, my name is David C. Brake.  I consider myself one of those people who feels like they have lived “many lives.”  I have been a musician, recording artist, entertainer comedian, manager, teacher, business owner, startup founder, husband and father–and a smart-aleck throughout.  However self assessments are always biased, so here are some examples for you to draw your own conclusions:

The Smart-Aleck

At one point in grade school, my math teacher noticed that one of my test scores was not up with the rest of my subjects.  She pulled me aside, and asked what I wanted to be when I grew up.  Although I appreciated that she was concerned, I also knew what she was trying to do.  I told her I wanted to be an astronaut, and she replied that I would need to know a lot of math for that vocation, so I should put forth more effort in my studies moving forward to reach that goal.  I replied that if that was the case, I no longer wish to be an astronaut, and I would appreciate if she could let me know what other occupations were math intensive so that I could make sure to avoid them in the future.  (She called my parents.)

Fast forward to the smart-aleck adult.  Continuing to make my case, below are some self-quotes that I found amusing, but the recipients at the time did not:

“I am considered an expert on most things that I’m not qualified to talk about.”

“If you look around and see you are the only one working for free, reassess the priorities of your co-workers.”

“If you knew what he really thought, he wouldn’t be a politician.”

“If you don’t believe in Jesus, I will kill you.  Does anyone else find this statement ironic?”

And last but not least:

“People who get their degrees while they sit around in their underwear are either really smart, or not worth hiring.”

And it’s this one that I want to talk about.

When I said that, it was in reference to online learning.  Unfortunately, the proponent of online learning to whom I was speaking did not find it amusing, and for some reason his response brought back memories of my “astronaut talk” in grade school.  He came back with, “Is the guy who pays a quarter of a million dollars for his degree smarter than the guy who makes a quarter of a million dollars without one?”  I thought about this.  Was I smarter to avoid something I didn’t enjoy, or would it have been more intelligent to put more time and effort into grade school math?  Everything, including the consequences involved, really depends on the objective.

There was a time in my life when all I wanted was to make a great salary going on stage and playing music for three hours a night.  After actually doing it for a while, that objective changed and I had new goals, but at the time I felt that it would have been foolish to obtain a degree which would not have brought me any closer to that objective.

While I can see arguments (and even agree sometimes) that online learning is alienating or closer to research https://chronicle.com/article/article-content/133177/ or that classroom learning kills creativity https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson, I think maybe the battle should be less of a battle and more of a conversation about objectives.  If you throw in all variables, I believe often times it really is what you make of it.  The best classroom teachers don’t stifle creativity with a curriculum, they try to find a way to inspire it (albeit sometimes in spite of the system)—and let’s not forget that in its quintessence, students in a school can also interact and inspire each other to create. Unfortunately, Sir Ken Robinson (see the link above) is also right that too often that quintessence is left unrealized.

As for online learning, while it may not be optimum in some situations, in others it can be very effective—and  in areas where nothing else is available, one could easily argue it is much better than the alternative of having no one to turn to for guidance.  Yes, proponents of online learning will say there are many who have benefitted, and there is no doubt that there are also many who stand to benefit.  Let’s hear what Bill Gates has to say on the subject. https://www.dailytech.com/Bill+Gates (Haha–how’s that for a segue?  I actually agree with much of his argument though, and even though he is selling software, projects like Khan Academy and DotLRN are a brilliant success thanks in no small part to his help.)

Maybe what’s really interesting now at this time in history is the fact that soon online vs classroom learning may not need to be a choice.  Enter Coursera: now you can even take Ivy League classes while you sit around in your underwear—at no cost to you.  https://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/05/06/cheaper-than-harvard-ivy-league Interestingly (and not coincidentally), although it is the same coursework given and graded by the same professors, the classes are apparently not accredited.  This is a point of contention raised by some of the students.  (“What do you expect for free?” says the University… “Not much in this country,” says the world traveler…)

The point is that no one method of learning is “better” than another, but rather that learning should be judged by what is most effective and what is available for each individual at any given time.  And that’s where LRNGO.com comes in, with an idea that’s been floating around in one form or another as far back as 1971. en.wikipedia.org/Deschooling_Society  At the end of the day, the truth of the matter is that classroom and individual learning do not need to be mutually exclusive any more than online and physical, or instruction and research.  Rather, there will (and should) be more choices available for each and everyone’s needs and applications.  In short, it is what you make of it, and that’s probably something we can all agree on—even if you’re a smart-aleck.

Infinite Possibilities/One Idea

Posted on by David C. Brake

Albert Einstein

If you’re reading this blog, you’ve probably noticed that it is attached to a website, and that the website is a collection of articles.  I know what you’re thinking.  Why would a website that is a collection of articles need a blog?  Why would anyone read the articles instead of the blog, or read the blog instead of the articles??  What are you trying to do here???  Why do you need so many question marks????  Well you deserve an explanation—so here it is.

In the 21st century, I believe the development of learning platforms and grids that help enable people to find any source of knowledge or skill and to connect with each other through learning paradigms is inevitable.  Furthermore, I believe that a unique focus on social learning solutions will eventually help to redefine the global education industry, the 2nd largest industry in the world.  The new technology-based social paradigm will appeal to the primary and supplemental needs of not just traditional teachers and learners, but to all people who seek assistance for knowledge and training in any situation to achieve their personal or professional goals.

For these purposes, the word “teacher” will mean not only instructors in classroom settings or with credentials of all levels and experience, but also “tutors,” “coaches,” and any individual with a skill, knowledge or training that they have acquired and would like to impart.  With the progression of technology that connects us all and increased access, I believe the ultimate scope and potential of this user base will continue to grow indefinitely.

The vision of LRNGO is to create a “learning market,” a wide open social learning space on the internet that allows any potential user to find another who can teach them anything they desire to learn.  Not just online, but face to face in the real world.  Education (meaning not just research learning or “teaching yourself,” but learning from others) will no longer be confined to learning in groups, classrooms, or institutions, from which many are excluded.  Anyone can find a source to learn anything they want or need at any time that is desirable, at any age or stage in their lives, wherever they are, and where cost may no longer be an issue.

This idea is based on two premises. First, that at any given time in a person’s life, there is a skill that he or she would like to develop or improve upon, as well as knowledge that he or she has that can be taught.  Second, as individuals increasingly see opportunities through new business models, individuals in both learning and teaching roles (teachers and students) will start thinking about learning in terms of transactions and realize that knowledge is a commodity, and “everything is negotiable.”

The move to social learning space can be expedited in part by a geographically searchable “mega-directory” website of all individuals who wish to be included, showing their skills and all level and knowledge of subjects that is completely open to the public, but is NOT limited to online learning.  The learning space will be a “marketplace” that is divided into 3 basic tiers, and each of the 3 tiers can be seen as a time/cost trade-off.

At the top tier, there would be an optional service for those who don’t have time to find someone to teach what they need, but prefer to spend money to hire someone or a trusted brand/entity to facilitate the entire process for them to take care of any learning needs they may have.   They can pay a concierge service or person to help make the right match with the right teacher at the right time and place of their choosing, and schedule any education or instruction program around their own valuable time.  (Of course, there are many services already doing this, and it’s not irrelevant that the global private tutoring market is projected by GIA to exceed $100 billion in the next five years.)

The middle tier is a listing of everyone in the world who wants to teach what they know.  Everyone is free to publicly browse and search this directory, and users will be quickly and conveniently searchable both by subject and location.  Users will create a public profile listing with as much or as little information as they are comfortable with showing, and will be able to be contacted directly through or outside of the website (they can choose whether anonymously or not).

Finally, where money is less of an option, there is a barter or trade system.  For those who don’t want to spend or don’t have money (such as college students), the idea is to “trade” an expertise of theirs in exchange for help or instruction in another subject.  This can be thought of loosely as a time bank barter system.

Revenue can be generated through…ah what the heck–let’s make it free.  🙂

In the next two years, the social learning market will be at the forefront of a new systemic movement toward open education.  Stick around.  This caterpillar website is about to turn into a butterfly.

(Supporting documents: “Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age” by George Siemens, Hacking Education Conference Transcript 3/6/2009, “Google U” by Jeff Jarvis, “DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education” by Anya Kamenetz)

Why Learning Is Social

Posted on by David C. Brake

Hi, my name is David C. Brake/Founder of LRNGO.com, a startup company and website in development that I began with my co-founder, Mandy Liu Brake. Before I write anything else, I want to thank everyone who responded to our call to contribute original articles to the site.  Many of them are very informative, and I can’t tell you how much we appreciate your ideas and wisdom – especially when it can’t be found elsewhere on the web!

So let’s cut to the chase—I imagine you want to know what the heck this website is all about and why you would want to read this blog.  🙂  Perhaps they are both trick questions.  To answer the first, right now LRNGO.com is simply an article library, but it is actually a website in development that we refer to as the “world’s first knowledge market,” and you would want to read this blog and keep up with the development of LRNGO.com if you are interested in learning anything from others locally or making money teaching what you know.

The story?  Well, we began this project because I am completely crazy.  You see, I own a company called Teachers 2 Go LLC whose mission is to provide busy people with any type of instruction by bringing teachers to their home through a convenient concierge service.  Because of this and my own prior teaching and learning experiences, I became interested in all kinds of learning processes and methods—particularly those that could be called social or “alternative.”  Why?  Because I am a product of it and because there is an underlying economy that is driven by it, and because these facts have enabled me and others like me not only to survive, but to thrive in a system from which we might otherwise have been excluded.

When I say excluded, lucky for me, in my case I mean due to my own choices.  I have had my share of both good and bad experiences with traditional learning institutions, and I believe the classroom learning experience can be as essential in certain applications as alternative methods are in others.  However the fact remains, we don’t always have the time or money to go to school and get credentials in everything we want to know, or that we need to know in order to compete.

And yet we find a way to learn.  First we research and study, then perhaps we learn by practicing ourselves, and then we take it as far as we can until we hit a roadblock—and that’s when it’s time to get social.  Of course, the learning process takes on a whole different dynamic once you find someone to teach and guide you; whether it’s a friend who knows more than you, or a teacher or a mentor. Let’s face it, if this wasn’t the case, education wouldn’t be the 2nd largest industry in the world.

It’s no coincidence that in almost every story ever written, the main character or hero has a friend or a guide that teaches them.  Learning from others is social, participatory, engaging, and the clearest path to actually successfully “doing it”—whatever “it” may be.  In fact, it is basic human nature to learn from others.  One could argue that every conversation we have with someone else is a learning experience.  (Even if all we learn is that we don’t want to talk to them again.  Speed daters may be especially suited to expertise on that topic!)

Anyway getting back to Teachers 2 Go LLC, so there I was with a regionally successful company of over 175 instructors for almost every academic and extra-curricular subject under the sun, and one day I was noticing the number of calls we had to turn away and it started to bother me.  Because the schedules didn’t match, because they couldn’t afford it, because they were too far away—etc.  These people all wanted to learn their subject of interest, but the same kinds of barriers that made traditional education impossible and brought them to Teachers 2 Go in the first place (time/cost/location) were still making it impossible to connect with instructors to help them achieve their goals.  We were going in circles—and for many people, not solving the problem.

So I did what I should have done a lot sooner:  I went back to the problem.  Let’s see, we don’t always have the time or money to go to school and get credentials in everything we want to know, or that we need to know to compete.  Wouldn’t it be great if you could instantly find someone near you to teach you anything?  Wouldn’t it be great if you could teach whatever you know to anyone near you who is looking?   Wouldn’t it help our economy if knowledge were an openly traded commodity?

Stay tuned.  It’s about to happen.  🙂

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