[liberationtech] Free Skool Idea

[Yishay Mor]

Hi Artik,

Check out: http://schoolofeverything.com/

Yishay

On Tuesday, May 29, 2012, Artik Cah wrote:

> I'm reaching out to Free Skool, Skill-Share, and Alternative University
> practitioners and organizers, parents who homeschool, artists who work with
> digital media and most importantly web developers and designers with an
> inclination towards radical educational models.
>
> I want to propose an idea that I think would align with many of the values
> of this list serve and would help in creating and promoting alternative
> frameworks for organizing and spreading non-hierachical and free learning
> in urban environments.
>
> I would like to gather a group to develop an easy to use website which
> would allow people within a city to connect and learn skills and knowledge
> from each-other. The website would allow people to easily connect and offer
> to teach a class, lecture or skill, request a class, sign up for a class or
> offer a location for others to use. The website would make it easy for
> someone seeking a specific skill to find someone else in their city who
> would be able to share that skill. This would essentially be a site akin
> to craigslist or couch surfing with a sole emphasis on creating networks of
> learning within cities.
>
> It's a pretty simple idea, but I think this would be a powerful tool for
> students of all kinds (especially those involved in the current tuition
> hike strikes in Canada), parents interested in creating homeschool co-ops
> for the education of their children and the general public sympathetic to
> causes which moves our society beyond its current hierarchical
> infrastructure. While the explosion of free classes online is exciting, I
> still think we need to develop infrastructure which brings people together
> to learn from each-other in the same physical location. The model allows
> for all types of knowledge, be it technical, philosophical, artistic,
> tactical, practical etc. to be shared freely throughout our communities. In
> this model everyone is seen as both a teacher and a student.
>
> I'm baffled as to why this alternative educational model exists on such a
> modest level and it seems only within radical communities, when ideally
> entire cities could be structured with full on educational
> systems/skill-sharing where learning together was a norm. I think a website
> like this would empower all kinds of people to see themselves as possessing
> knowledge to be shared with others. In New Orleans the free skool is not
> located in any one place but can take place across the city wherever space
> is available (in parks, at community centers, in homes)- because free
> skools can operate in such a decentralized fashion, it seems ideal to
> organize them online.
>
> I imagine such a website supporting other free skools and educational
> initiatives already in existence within communities:
> - http://tradeschool.coop/
> - http://corvidcollege.wikidot.com/
> - http://santacruz.freeskool.org/
> - http://freeschool.redemmas.org/
> - http://platformed.org/
> - (There's http://www.skillshare.com/ and http://hourschool.com/ but they
> are both based on money-making principles)
>
> Looking for your thoughts on the matter; pitfalls, objections, interest,
> other ideas, friends who may be interested , alternative educational models
> , feasibility etc. I am in the process of organizing an online group of
> developers and consultants who would work on this project together online.
> Please let me know if you would like to be involved in whatever capacity.
>
>
> Blessings,
>
> Kitra Cahana
>
> www.kitracahana.com
> (Photojournalist)
>
>

-- 
Sent from my tablet
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