I recently came across the New York City-based startup Skillshare when I told a friend I wouldn’t be able to get a certificate in web design because of current financial circumstances. He suggested I check out Skillshare for any graphic and web design classes. Upon visiting the website, I immediately signed up and found a few classes that were of interest.
What is Skillshare?
Skillshare calls itself a “community marketplace” where anyone can post a class about anything – think of Skillshare like a broker of sorts connecting teachers to students, much in the same way eBay and Amazon connects sellers to buyers. Anyone can teach on Skillshare; you simply sign up, write a description about the class, list a price, number of students and a venue, and create the class. There is no review process for classes and listing on Skillshare is free. Skillshare charges a fee per ticket sold (unless, of course, the price of your class is “free”). Important to note: people can sign up for Skillshare with their Facebook credentials instead of creating a completely new account.
So far, Skillshare has listings in most major cities in the United States and continues to roll out listings in smaller markets. It also plans on offering listings internationally in cities such as Cape Town, Calgary, Berlin, London, Helsinki, Singapore, Vancouver and Sydney, among others.
Skillshare in Tanzania and East Africa
What would Skillshare or a similar platform look like in Tanzania? For individuals located in more remote parts of the country who wish to participate, what technological tools can be made available to them (live streaming via Ustream, for example, or another service)? Aside from using PayPal to collect payments, can there be mobile cash transfers instead? How can Tanzania benefit from a Skillshare-like platform?
There are some solid moves from mobile service operators to create flows of financial capital using mobile networks. If there was a way to create these flows for this kind of work – ie: professional development – I think multiple mediums, including radio, could piggyback off this model.
Take a look at the Open University; they have some interesting channels to diffuse but also award learning: http://www8.open.ac.uk/about/main/the-ou-explained/teaching-and-learning-the-ou
Looking forward to seeing this conversation develop, especially while ElimuShare looms in the horizon…
this is a very good idea. I signed up, unfortunately where I am they only have like two or three classes which are not of my interest. But i love this idea.