i recently came across this website *skillshare.com* ....the future is finally here ;) what a genius concept. both student and teacher can benefit from this sad economy we are living in...one can learn on a dime and the other can pocket this change while doing something great for their community. it only makes sense to make education feasible for everyone by going back to roots ...learning a trade as an apprentice through a master craftsman. only now, it^s virtual and you can apprentice under anyone globally. TRULY AMAZING!
what is an apprenticeship? apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a structured competency on a basic set of skills. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apprenticeship
i still value a traditional education - i graduated with a degree in marketing many many years ago. school was still semi-affordable and a degree had merit and weight. if you look at craigslist listings these days, businesses are starting to hire marketing assistants with only a high school diploma. why not! a few lucky high schoolers go to some amazing schools [that offer classes in adobe creative suites]. these high schoolers become so proficient with the program by the time they graduate, they have mastered it. makes sense to me.
i took a class in Adobe Flash back in 2008, and i was in a room filled with high school sophomores [soon to be juniors that fall], who were taking a summer school class just for the fun of it. they were extremely lucky to have been part of a program their high school had to offer them ...and on day 1, while we all awaited the professor to arrive to class, these kids were already animating shorts. the few of us, who were twice the age of these kids at the time, just sat and watched in amazement. why were they even in the class? lol
i continue to go to school to learn new subjects that interest me so, that i can stay competitive and further my career in mixed media design. seeing and experiencing the rising cost of education, and seeing it change and evolve the way it has, makes skillshare.com more desirable for everyone. it^s for the people, who just want to take a class for the fun of it, or for those who are unsure about what they want to major in and are looking to dabble a bit, and for those who are just graduating from a high school, that could only offer the basics in education due to a tight budget ...and at 18, you really don't know what you want to be. the world is your oyster ...why not have fun and test the waters with skillshare.com.
going to school and getting an education is extremely expensive these days. the hope is that when one graduates from a university, one can find a great jobby-job, but so many graduates are having an extraordinarily hard time finding them these days. so, they end up with a huge school debt and no job to help pay it back for a long while.
what i see skillshare.com doing is two things:
1). it opens the door for someone\anyone to test the waters in a particular area without having to pour a lot of money into school first. [that was the idea for community colleges, but even community colleges have become pricey.] if that person happens to like that particular area of interest, then it only makes sense to pursue that career in school and make the financial commitment to pursue it through formal education. skillshare.com represents a potential dream ...coming to fruition for someone who wasn^t fortunate to have the money to afford college. it represents another avenue of getting ahead in our digital world.
2). it also creates an avenue for someone\anyone with a unique talent or skill to teach a whole new generation of people how to do this lost art ...to share this knowledge before it becomes extinct. i see handwriting becoming a skillshare class one day. [i can^t believe it^s being taken off the elementary school curriculum.] *the best part* of skillshare is that these classes don^t *all* have to be virtual...so the course instructor can designate a meeting place if desired. this opens the door for so many classes such as: dance, music, theatre. [i personally love going to school, so i wouldn^t mind if these classes became available in my area too: short-hand, marker rendering techniques, and many more DIY type classes.]
bottom line, if you have skill and want to share it with the world *and/or* if you^re ready to explore and to broaden your mind with a new skill, then this is your platform. i encourage all my talented friends not only to take a class, but also to teach one ;)