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VIRTUAL LEARNING CENTER
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NOTICE:
Our virtual learning center operates intermitenntly: depending on
the number of computers we are able to maintain, our ability to
afford wideband Internet access, and the availibility of trained
volunteers.
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Situated on a one acre campus in the center
of historic Trujillo, Majon is harnessing the internet to provide both basic
and cyberage instruction to children with no prior formal education.
Here we are creating a free university to teach the poorest
children to become webmasters, proficient in internet commerce (‘e-business’).
This is an experimental project based on the following assumptions: - The
internet constitutes (with one or two monopolistic exceptions) a market
economy in the purest sense - that is to say everyone participating in the
internet has an equal opportunity to sell their goods or services. There
is no discrimination, no ‘old boy network’, no hierarchy to close the door
in the face of un-sponsored minority participants. Either a participant’s
work in building and promoting his or her website results in visitors coming
to the website and buying what is offered for sale or does not.
The poorest children normally live
in countries with the poorest economies. Internet
Business (electronic commerce) in most cases does not depend on the
local economy for its success, but rather sells to the rich world
and repatriates profits for use in the local
economy. |
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- The skills required to exploit the internet for commercial
purposes are easily grasped by most people, and do not require a strong
educational foundation for success (unlike most other professions). The
principal requirement is that the people training the students are experienced
e-commerce practitioners (of which there are still but few in this new industry),
not merely educated theorists (of which there are already too many, misleading
many). A -The founders of the free university are
recruiting and training teachers for the first matriculation of students.
Future teachers will be drawn from the student body. B - Initial resources
for the free university are provided by the founders. It is envisioned that
future support will come from the proceeds of school-operated e-commerce
projects; through donations from internet and computer companies willing
to help demonstrate the universality of e-commerce, and from overseas NGOs.
C - The curriculum of the free university will be divided between classroom
and computer laboratory instruction on the one hand, and apprentice-style
on-the-job training on the other, in which students participate in real
time school sponsored e-business projects. Certificates of competence and/or
university degrees (pending Regents acceptance of the university’s credentials)
will be awarded on a performance rather than a calendar basis. The best
students will be awarded certificates before the others and will be invited
either to join the teaching staff or else to join the university as associates
in one or more e-commerce projects. Considering the young age of most matriculating
students, the university will also offer, along with e-commerce courses
and training, the standard curriculum available to students in a public
school environment. This will be delivered through a combination of internet-accessed
on-line instruction (virtual education) and live teachers |
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