Ubuntu, a Backpack, and a Free Education

Written by stanklen

Which would you rather do, travel around the world for the next four years, or spend those years in school, racking up debt?     Most people would rather travel around the world. And yet thousands of young people choose to go onto college immediately after high school without even thinking of the possibility of travel. Too many young adults fail to take control of their future and design the curriculum of their dreams. College is becoming more expensive, and travel cheaper. The average cost for a year of public college is $15,566. For $15,000 a young person can travel around the world, stay in any country they choose, and not work for a year. Incorporate some volunteer work, and the costs can drop $5,000. Which provides more value for a person's future, four years traveling the world, seeing and experiencing different cultures, or four years in yet another lifeless institution?     The only problem is the cost. There are grants and scholarships to help out when paying for college. There aren't any grants or scholarships that pay for young adults to take time off and travel. No, but a creative person can save thousands by volunteering, or teaching english as a second language. Or work on the internet and pay for the entire trip while underway. These ideas are never presented to kids as real alternatives to the current educational system. The three choices kids in america hear are, go to college, join the army, or get a job. At no point does the idea of travel enter into the conversation.     And that's a problem. Kids in the US are less likely than their European counterparts to take time off and see the world. They're less knowledgable about global ideas and cultures.  Some would say this is a good thing, but that's just not true. It is always better to know than not. As the US faces big uncertaintities from the middle east and China, the creation of intelligent, independant individuals is imperitive to ensure the future of our country. Without citizens who know firsthand what it's like to be in a repressive government, how can they prevent their own government from becoming the same?     Globally we are facing a growing government trend towards citizen monitoring and suspicion. Almost every country is implementing some sort of electronic monitoring system for their citizens. The internet is under attack by governments looking to influence thought. China has restricted the sites their citizens are allowed to view, and the United States has requested all search engines maintain two year back logs of search requests from computers. We need an educated, independant global citizenry ready to fight against repressive governments everywhere.     Enter technology and collective intelligence. Open source software and cheap computers are revolutionizing the way people learn. Before only the richest countries had cheap computers and fast internet. Nowadays, even the most underdeveloped of countries has internet cafes springing up with reasonable rates. Go anywhere in the world, and computers and the internet aren't far away. With a Ubuntu LiveCD and a USB key, any internet cafe machine can be transformed into an ultimate learning machine. Just insert the cd into the drive bay, reboot the computer, and instantly you'll have access to a complete suite of educational software. Photo editing, document writing, filesharing, it's all there at the quick restart of the computer. Keep all your personal files on the USB key, and you've got your own portable computer system.     And if you want to learn, MIT has put all their courses online for free. Anyone traveling around the world can create their own online education thanks to their efforts. Just log onto OpenCourseWare and choose your own curriculum. No, you don't get any credit for your work, but you do get access to the exact same materials as MIT students. Incorporate some online work while traveling, and the internet gives kids the access to the greatest educational experience imagionable. A hundred years ago not even the richest of kids could travel around the world and get a world class education. Nowadays, it's available to everyone. Are you going to accept the opportunity?

 

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