Serendipity and Learning

A few weeks ago, I walked into a cup cake shop and since the little one was with me, we decided to take a look at the kitchen. And I was a little surprised. There was hardly anything hi-tech in there. I mean, the equipment was what one would find in a standard urban kitchen of today. And the shop boy assured me all the baking was done there itself. Perhaps I am missing something. But while on the one hand, there is a lot of discussion on how the internet has democratized information - to some extent microwave ovens have done the same in India. Baking is one of those home-industries that has taken off after the introduction of microwave ovens and the easy availability of recipes and ingredients on the internet. Today one can find baking stuff like silicone moulds and other assorted items at almost any shop. There are practically no entry barriers. And by the way, cake making is now so easy that every neighbourhood has a cake shop that bakes its cakes right there - it has still not got...

Coursera is one of those new sites that offer education on the internet - in my view, the best use of the internet is learning and sharing. For an auto-didact , the internet is perhaps the best thing to have happened. Coursera offers the kind of offers, your local university cannot dream of offering. Okay, I take that back. Surely, they can dream of offering - but the way Indian universities are structured and constrained, it is highly unlikely that something like this can come through. Until a few months ago, it was never concern that they will disrupt our well entrenched system. But here it comes. Coursera now offers signature courses - that means, for a fee, you can get a certificate from the university that offers the course. How cool is that? This is a real disruptor to the university - especially those that do not innovate and bring out something new. But the best part is that universities need not fret - they can join the others and offer a course from their area of expert...