Bill Gates Says Internet Will Offer the Best Education in Five Years

I can see this happening more and more especially when you consider the amount of masters programs that are completely online...

He also said spam would be eliminated about 10 years ago. What has he every been right about?

I suppose he will get back to trying to sterilize Africa. http://www.descubremas.com/2010/07/29/bill-gates-talks-about-vaccines-to-reduce-population/

The major problems with this so far are that employers still look skeptically at candidates who received degrees online. No matter how good the education is an employer will not look the same at candidates who received their degree from Phoenix, Capella, etc as someone who graduated from a known, traditional school. Whether its fair or not, everybody knows this is true.

Secondly, the costs are still very high. For instance, I'm working on an MBA right now and am doing it through a mixture of online and in-room instruction. Each class costs about $2K regardless of what format I take them in. No cost savings there and from looking around I think that holds truer than many would like to believe.

Another example of how the world actually is versus the commone sense conclusions as to how it should be.

I guess this is anothere example of how expertise in one area doesn't mean you know anything else. The most significant problem is that there is absolutely no valid scrutiny to prove who is at the keyboard. Hackers will compromise the system the instant a degree on-line has value.

not gonna happen, bill. self-motivated learners are already out there learning from the internet, but that's different than getting an education. additionally, mr. gates sees things through his rainbow tinted glasses that technology can answer everything. what about the student who is motivated but not a skilled researcher, or one who does not have the ability to problem solve with a teacher to guide him/her?

enrollment continues to increase at most universities.

what will change is the model, but i think that colleges/universities will continue to modify their delivery methods to ensure that the customer gains more in person than for free online.

I agree. Especially since in NJ there will be probably no teachers left due to Gov. Christie. I really feel for the kids who have learning differences. Who will be left to teach them?? Lots of state and federal mandates- no money comes with them. Crazy.

Obviously, Bill Gates does not understand what the word "education" really means. In this respect, he is in the company of most "educators." You know, the unionized quasi-professionals who take their orders from the Department of Education bureaucrats in Washington, DC and have dumbed-down this nation in virtually every category.

The best education is the Classical Liberal Arts education known as the Trivium [logic, grammar, rhetoric] and the Quadrivium [arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy].

Computers will NEVER be able to substitute for the essential role(s) of teacher(s) and student(s) discussing these subject(s).

Bill Gates has expertise in computers, programming, marketing, and probably everything related thereto. His opinions on everything else are, obviously, on the same level as the average voter: merely an opinion.

Who am I to question Bill Gates, he invented Windows 7 did he not?
I feel that there has to be a lot of changes in the upper level of education. Too many kids are going to college, who end up in jobs where the college degree means nothing. College have gone into being a big money making program, not in seeing that the kids learn things.
We need to constrate more on teaching kids in k-12 things other than getting ready for college. There are a lot who would be better off taking course in technical or other things then in taking a bunch of classes to qualify for college.
Right now it seems from what I read that is all they work at in regular schools, the chartered schools even go farther. but that leave out the kid who is great with his hands. who can think, but not the kind of stuff needed for college.
So all in all I think Bill Gates is wrong. Just because he invented window 7 does no tmake him right

The self-motivated learner has BEEN on the web for a few years already, Bill. Sadly, the fact that there are tons of degree mills that just hand out degrees to complete idiots in exchange for a few semesters' worth of tuition and fees makes the place where you attend college even more important now than it ever was.

he gave 65,000$ SCHOLORSHIP TO 1 GIRL SHOULD OF SPREAD IT TO OTHERS.

Not everyone learns better online. I know I don't. I need to be around other people and hearing ideas, etc. That teacher-student relationship is missing online.

When are you going to run for President, Bill Gates? I will vote for you.

Dopey Bill Gates is confusing education with credentials.
Of course if he were right, and he's not, he wouldn't stand to profit from such schemes would he? His head is stuck in the "cloud" along with many computer applications.
Funny that demand and competition for good, real, schools, teachers and scholars are going up, notwithstanding rising costs.
Those same real, good schools are offering Internet-based classes now too, via synchronous videoconferencing technologies.
I know that my students on the other end of the stream are who they're supposed to be, their work is actually theirs, and they get what they deserve.

Gates just wants to see more kids turned into listless nurd lumps who will be using his software.

In theory what Bill Gates says rings true. Much of what he predicts will happen. What is disconcerting is there is no mention of the role of an affirming family or family like structure in the role of educating the child or of the socialization process that comes form classroom participation. It is in the give and take of a challenging classroom environment where the student learns to apply knowledge within the context of community.

Bill Gates is a smart guy, but, folks we are losing tactile sense. If our children and grandchildren get their education in front of a computer, what are they going to study?...and what are they REALLY going to learn. I know there is interaction in on-line study, but it's not like hearing the inflection in someone's voice, or seeing their expressions. Where's the human interaction? I think college education is prohibitively expensive, but that has come about because EVERYONE now goes to college, and so that is part of the status quo. I read about high schools who are trying to computerize their libraries to get rid of the books. On line study is fine, but there is nothing like the feel and the smell of a REAL book. Also, school is a time to share ideas, look at peers face to face, eye to eye, and truly humanly communicate. If some of you are interested, read a book called "Midnight" by Dean Koontz...we are there.

This stance wholly negates the effect(s) of the medium itself. Remember "The medium is the message"? When people speak of their education, it is usually to reference a particular teacher whom they credit for something momentous in their lives. Or, perhaps, a particular book. Where does all that "human value" go when only a screen is in front of you? Away, I would think.

I could not agree with you more - in every particular you are absolutely [and painfully] correct. Everything you have written is true, God help us all.

I am, BTW, one of those "unionized quasi-professionals." Though, honestly, on good days, I do flatter myself and drop the "quasi-." Oh, and I don't pay much attention to the Department of Education, either.