Do people really think that watching videos of lectures is equivalent to seeing the lecture in person, following up with a recitation, and completing problems sets with other equivalently motivated kids?

It's the difference between watching a music video and jamming with the band.

Perhaps that's what makes the MIT educational experience worthwhile.

As soon as that can be replicated, I'll buy into it.

The quality of the lectures is the less important part in college. It's the community. It's who are your friends. It is the first time in your life where you choose your peers. _That's_ what makes college so important.

At least, that is what it _used_ to make college so important. With the web, there is no need to have physical presence to choose our peers. Fuck, we're doing it _right now_ on this website. People come to HN and not to reddit not because of the technology, but because of the people who are participating on them.