Internet Will Replace Universities
Queen’s University in Canada is a good example of how the internet is the new campus, the digital college. Queen’s University is not going out of business, but it is removing certain subjects from the blackboard.
1. Liberal Studies
2. Hispanic Studies
3. German Studies
4. Graduate Diploma in Business
The Internet’s advantages and disadvantages and social networking in particular are always fodder for debate. What is seldom digested is its long term imprint on formal education such as attending class and being taught by human beings.
The word internet did not exist for the general public before 1990. Back then, teachers from lower grades up to university professors were regarded as the fountain of knowledge, where students took a sip and came out wiser. The internet punctured that equation. It is the new campus.
The new campus is attractive for a myriad of reasons. For example, it doesn’t have a syllabus or course modules. Mobile phones give young people online access to any subject or non-subject. Indeed, why should they study Geography when Google Maps takes them to a particular house in Montreal just by caressing a mobile phone?
Music is the biggest casualty. The internet has changed the way it is created and distributed leaving recording companies with warehouses full of unsold CD’s. Entertainment lawyers themselves go to the internet when preparing copyright infringement lawsuits.
Are music professors aware of all this? Do they know the difference between re-mixing, sampling or mash-ups? Musicians such as Ice Cube and Jay-Z have flipped the script on how to market their product.
English or French students used to sit under trees on campus and turn pages of prescribed books about Canada under Pierre Trudeau or the Underground Railroad. Most of this information is a click away, thus greatly diminishing professors’ imprint on students’ outlook.
Will colleges disappear one day?
Nonqaba waka Msimang
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