Education

We are working on a new system for self-learning and teaching. Think of it as Wikipedia but arranged pedagogically. This is a curation and free learning of all kinds of knowledge.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/63831008

This is the new progress tracking ability added for users to check their progress of a skill graph. The backend handles this via Assessments and Capabilities - 2 general objects in the Brotherhood that will, in the future, serve as the blueprint for more exotic assessment systems like work-based, peer-verified assessments and capability certificates that will serve as the de-facto portable proof-of-skills.

This is currently in beta-stage and behind an invite-only access. However, very soon, signups will be open-for-all and you can test it for yourself. If you wish to try it out before that, please reach out through to us.

For more information, please visit the official website

I went down a bit of a rabbit hole on this one because I kept seeing it pop up online. The more I looked into it, the more it felt like a classic case of a claim taking on a life of its own. So here’s what I actually found.

A bit of background first

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was born in Tamil Nadu in 1956. Most of us know him as the founder of the Art of Living Foundation, which runs meditation and wellness programs across the world. Growing up, he had both a conventional school education and early exposure to Vedic learning. Later he studied physics alongside Vedic literature, which is an unusual combo but not unheard of back then.

So where does the confusion come from?

Okay so this is the part that I think is at the root of everything. He has received honorary doctorates from various institutions over the years. And honorary degrees are NOT earned academic degrees. Universities give them out as a gesture of recognition to public figures, activists, artists etc. You don’t write a thesis or sit any exams for one.

The problem is once the word “doctorate” or “degree” gets attached to someone’s name, it gets muddled really easily. If someone somewhere described him using vague language like “holds an advanced degree” that’s honestly all it takes for something to snowball.

But is there actual proof of fraud though?

This is the part worth being really clear about. When people say fake degree they usually mean something specific like a forged certificate, a diploma mill or a false claim of qualifications. That is a serious accusation.

But from everything that’s publicly available I couldn’t find any verified documentation of degree forgery, no credible legal dispute over fake credentials, no institution calling out a fraudulent claim. There’s no clear origin point with actual receipts. It honestly reads more like something that got repeated so many times that people just started assuming it was true.

How these things spread online

This part is actually pretty interesting to think about. A vague or ambiguous claim gets posted somewhere, shows up in search autocomplete, gets repeated in comment sections and after a while it starts feeling like established fact purely because of how often you’ve seen it. Nobody traced it back to a source. They just passed it along.

That’s not me saying public figures are above criticism. They absolutely aren’t. But there’s a real difference between legitimate criticism and a claim that’s been laundered through repetition until it sounds credible.

My takeaway

The fake degree narrative looks like it grew from honorary degrees being misunderstood or mislabeled and then that confusion spreading without much fact checking along the way. That’s not the same as saying everything about him is beyond question. It just means this particular claim doesn’t seem to stand on any solid verifiable ground.

If anyone has an actual credible source that proves otherwise, drop it below. Genuinely open to being corrected.

UK charity warns against excessive academic pressure and suggests reducing the number of high-stakes tests

Education should be for learning and developing, not over pressurising and determining life opportunities at 16.

We need to build better and more equitable education systems. How rich you are born today influences way too much your chances at educational and professional success. Social mobility should be maximized!

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/wqduTqIGm1g

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_mobility

How the Moroccan Education System Reproduces Social Inequality Instead of Reducing It

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https://theonion.com/tips-for-using-ai/

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/41390962

Jiang Xueqin grew up in Canada, graduated from Yale, and has been teaching in China for more than a decade.