From Takshashila to MOOC
Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have
announced a new non-profit partnership, edX, to offer free online
courses. MOOC, Massive Open Online Courses are already available from
Stanford, Princeton, Michigen-Ann Arbour and Penn under the project
Coursera (www.coursera.org), "changing the face of education globally",
to "learn from world-class professors, watch high quality lectures,
achieve mastery via interactive exercises, and collaborate with a global
community of students."
Harvard Metadata Project provides open access in order to support
learning and research, to disseminate knowledge and to foster
innovation.
We have come a long way across 3200 years, from Takshashila (Taxila)
which has been dated back to the 10th century B.C. to Corusera in the
21st century. We had the Platonic Academy and Aristotles Peripatetic
school in Greece, Taixue in China from the pre-Christian period, and
later Nalanda in India, Academy of Gundishpur in Persia and Daigakuryo
in Japan.
Most of the ancient universities were founded for the teachings of
great religious leaders or philosophers. But none of these great leaders
had gained their own knowledge at any educational institutions or
universities. Even in more recent years, some people achieved greatness
and served mankind in spite of what they had learned at their
universities.
Takshasila, Nalanda, Vallabhi and Vickramashila were well known for
their excellence in education and had attracted students even from
China. Each teacher was an institution by himself and enjoyed complete
autonomy. UNESCO mentions the claim that the Mahabharata was first
recited at Taxila. Valabhi was beside a sea port, attracting many
overseas students and did not limit their courses to Theravada Buddhism,
but offered studies in the Veda and courses for businessmen and the
ruling classes. They offered Niti (Political Science), Varta (Business
and agriculture), also law, economics and accountancy. At Vikramashila
at one time there had been one hundred and eight buildings, all laid out
in the shape of a lotus to accommodate several thousand students and
teachers. There were six 'Patashala' each with a learned scholar as the
head of the acharyas.
We are able to put together what the university life had been in
ancient India mainly through the descriptions by the visiting Chinese
monks.
In ancient times often education was on a one to one basis, specially
at institutions like Nalanda, while at Vikramashila lectures were held
for large groups of students. Today we are back with both systems, with
on-line learning. We can have our one-to-one education, through our own
computer, even though the teacher would be addressing all his students
spread around the globe.
A few decades back the ambition of most parents was to have their
children obtain a university degree. Then the Rat Race among mankind led
them to seek further education and higher qualifications. Twenty years
ago, an Indian friend told me about his son doing an MBA and added, "I
have only a degree". This craze has spread to our country too, as we can
see on weekends where many young and not so young people attend post
graduate classes. There was a recent news item about a 91 year old
Australian who obtained a degree in law followed by a master's at 97. He
has already got four degrees, starting with his first degree in
dentistry 72 years ago. He claims he did it because "I have so much time
on my hands these days and I like to keep mentally active"
He has got into the Guinness records, and it is a harmless way to be
mentally active. There are many who have an "insatiable itch" to keep on
studying, keep on adding degrees after their names, for whatever reason.
It could be that some of them want to prove to themselves that they are
intelligent, that they are capable of facing educational and academic
challenges, to show that they are way above the 'hoi polloi'. Or it
could be that they hope to 'advance their carriers', and to gain social
and economic stature. Throughout our entire lifetime, we keep learning.
Our knowledge and experience we gather from the university of life
itself. We learn so we could improve our own life and be of benefit to
the rest of the world, and we share our knowledge with others around us
and teach the younger generation.
Jayanta Bhatta (9th cent) Kashmiri poet and philosopher had written,
"How can we discover any new fact or truth? One should consider novelty
only in rephrasing the oldest truths of the ancients in modern
terminology". (Nyaya-manjari, Introduction vs 8. K Matilal,
Nyayavaisesika). What we learn, what we know, what we discover are
nothing new. We only learn what exists in our universe. This knowledge
belongs to all mankind, and all other intelligent creatures. We cannot
have a monopoly on knowledge, it is our duty to share it with everyone,
and pass it down to the next generation.
Education was free in ancient times, but not free for everyone. There
were many social, economic and religious barriers. Admission was also
not easy. Major universities conducted an 'Entrance examination', to
test the knowledge of the applicant and also to assess his intelligence
and his commitment. It was because of limitations of facilities and
funds. Today sky is the limit. The day is coming when there will be free
education for all, and we can carry our university in our pocket, along
with libraries and museums, all on a tablet pc or even on our phone.
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