Daniel Lemire's blog

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Reputation still holds in education… for how long?

Readers of this blog who think that I am a bit mad would do well to go read the latest Cringely:

(…) reputation still holds in education, though its grip is weakening. (…) MIT threw videos of all its lecture courses – ALL its lecture courses – up on the web for anyone to watch for free. This was precisely comparable to SGI (remember them?) licensing OpenGL to Microsoft. What is it, then, that makes an MIT education worth $34,986? Is it the seminars that aren’t on the web? Faculty guidance? Research experience? Getting drunk and falling in the Charles River without your pants?

Compare this quote with my posts The 2 myths that gets students into ivy-league schools, Who needs your lectures?, and It may not matter all that much where you go to college.

Yep. Not long ago people bought European electronics because it was supposedly better. Now? These days are long gone.