Internet education for all

If i may echo something Marshall McLuhan once said: People live in an “age of anxiety” when they try “to do today’s jobs with yesterday’s tools.” The task of creating an empowered public seems insurmountable at times, yes, but this is only true if we remain inside the box of traditional systems and dismiss how technology is leveling the proverbial playing field.

On May 3, 2014, some 293 individuals earned various degrees as newly minted graduates of the UP Open University, the country’s premier institution of Open, Distance, e-Learning (ODeL). Their achievements have been made possible because of the existence of virtual classrooms and online modes of transmitting the latest skills and knowledge across different emerging fields in Philippine education.

What few know is how similar feats are within reach of any Filipino with an Internet connection. As bandwidth caps and broadband speed issues circulate the sphere of public discourse, it might be relevant to campaign for a more purposeful use of cyberspace.

Our citizens, young and old, can visit edX (https://www.edx.org

/courses), Udacity (https://www.udacity.com) or Coursera (https://www.coursera.org) for free online courses offered by international universities. The only requirements include an e-mail

address and a willingness to acquire an “intellectual upgrade.” Or better yet, our kababayan may enroll in the UP Open University (https://www2.upou.edu.ph) and make the crucial step to becoming lifelong learners.

If we think about it, the obscene amount of time we spend navigating social media or

using mobile applications can be put to better use, all in pursuit of genuine nation-building.

—JOCELYN NICOLAS TOLENTINO,

[email protected]