In-Class Learning Vs. Self-Education (Ep. 10)

Contrary to what all you binary aficionados may think, this is episode #10 of the College Info Geek podcast! Double digits, friends. We did it. Now let’s start the long march to three digits, and, possibly, insanity.

Going into the production for today’s episode, my brain was set to “argue” rather than “interview”. However, despite my best efforts to spite, today’s guest and I ended up agreeing on pretty much everything.

Back in March, I wrote a ginormous post about self-driven study. It’s one the best things I’ve ever written, in my opinion, and the techniques described within have helped me do some pretty amazing things.

However, I’ll admit that I might have been a little hard on the alternative – traditional, in-class learning. You know… college.

Well, maybe more than a little. My friend Robbie Williford felt the need to chime in with a differing opinion:

@TomFrankly There’s much to be said about the in-class learning model that always stands out to me. I enjoy people more than machines.

— Robbie Williford (@rfwilliford) March 3, 2013

Later, Robbie pitched me the idea of doing a debate on the merits of in-class learning vs. those of self-study. The idea sounded pretty good to me, so I accepted. And here we are.

Robbie has been an active CIG reader for quite a while now. He’s also an active blogger himself, writing for both HackCollege and Lifehack.org. He’s a rising senior at Oakland University in Michigan, where he is both a student leader and an RA.

In this episode, Robbie and I talk about the merits of in-class education, and whether or not they justify the price of college. We also go over how to integrate the benefits of self-study into a busy college schedule (for those of you looking to maximize your experience).

Items mentioned in this episode:

• Pick Four
• Lift – habit-tracking app
• Follow Robbie on Twitter

Things you should do right after listening:

• Ask yourself whether your goals require in-class learning or could be done through self-study. Even if a lot of your time is taken up by classes, can you still make time to learn something on your own?

If you enjoyed this interview, leave a review of the CIG podcast on iTunes! Remember, sharing is caring, and Finkle is Einhorn.