The Public School is the kind of online service which really makes me sit up and take notice. The idea is that anyone can suggest or teach a class and once there are enough interested pupils the class starts. Super cool. At the moment pupils attend a physical location (in LA) to learn, but why couldn’t the idea be extended to online education, via Skype or some other remote communication technology? I just love the idea of crowdsourced education, delivering what people want, when and where they want it. Awesome.
THE PUBLIC SCHOOL is a school with no curriculum. At the moment, it operates as follows: first, classes are proposed by the public (I want to learn this or I want to teach this); then, people have the opportunity to sign up for the classes (I also want to learn that); finally, when enough people have expressed interest, the school finds a teacher and offers the class to those who signed up. THE PUBLIC SCHOOL is not accredited, it does not give out degrees, and it has no affiliation with the public school system.