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DailyDirt: The Coming Education Revolution

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Providing digitally-distributed educations isn’t as scalable as it might seem. Some topics, like math, might be a bit easier to teach with YouTube-esque videos, but some subjects may need a bit more of a human touch. Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are still in the development phase, so they may one day overtake traditional classes (but not right now..). Here are a few online courses to keep an eye on to see if they rate better than “needs improvement” someday.

• MIT is starting to offer a big data class online with a MOOC aimed at working professionals (that’ll be $495 for four weeks of classes, please). MIT has provided free online course materials for years, but this course is part of the first set of Online X classes. [url]
• Minerva is a “startup” university that aims to offer a quality education for less than $20,000 per year. Minerva aspires to have admission standards that are “higher than current Ivy League levels” and focuses on teaching skills rather than traditional academic subjects. [url]
• Udacity’s Sebastian Thrun knows that developing a MOOC ain’t easy, admitting “We have a lousy product.” Experiments with online classes apparently are teaching some folks what doesn’t work when it comes to teaching. [url]

If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: big data, college, education, massively open online course, minerva, mit, mooc, online classes, sebastian thrun, students, teaching, udacity, university

DailyDirt: Getting An Online Education…

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The existing system of going to a school, listening to lectures and getting a degree after you’ve passed some tests might not be the way education will operate in the near future. Massive open online courses (MOOCs) promise to teach a wide array of subjects, and there are plenty of students willing to try out these online classes instead of sleeping through another boring lecture at 8am. Obviously, not all the kinks have been worked out yet, and there will undoubtedly be online degrees that aren’t worth the paper they may (or may not) be printed on. Still, there are some interesting developments in the field of education, and here are just a few.

• Sebastian Thrun is optimistic about creating an online class that will confer a master’s degree in computer science. All the class material will be online for free, but the actual degree will cost a few thousand bucks still (via Georgia Tech). [url]
• The traditional education system might be in for some disruption as more online education startups attract students and pull tuition dollars away from bricks and mortar institutions. If professors don’t like their student reviews now, it’s going to get a bit worse when online classes are rated instantly by students…. [url]
• Professor Sugata Mitra has demonstrated that kids don’t necessarily need a teacher — if you just set up an internet-connected computer in the middle of a village in India, you’ll be surprised by what the kids learn all by themselves. And now, Mitra has $1 million from a TED prize to further his research into self-organized learning. [url]
• Don’t have time to attend a class? You might not need to with the University of Wisconsin’s upcoming program to grant bachelor degrees based on existing experience. You still have to take some tests and demonstrate your skills, but the school of hard knocks might be good enough in some cases? [url]

If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: college, degree, education, moocs, online classes, sebastian thrun, students, sugata mitra, tedtalk, tuition
Companies: udacity

DailyDirt: Cheaters Never Prosper?

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

It’s hard to really know how many cheaters are actually caught taking shortcuts. Generally, people assume that the ones who get caught are representative of all cheaters — but maybe the smart cheaters are never caught… and really do prosper. Here are just a few known cheaters… and not all of them have faced up to any consequences.

• South African Olympian Cameron van der Burgh set a world record in the men’s 100-meter breaststroke (and won a gold medal), but later he admitted to using more dolphin kicks than are officially allowed. He’s not the only one doing it, but that doesn’t make it right (just like peeing in the pool). [url]
• In the UK, Charles Ingram cheated “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” with a simple system of having his wife cough at the correct answers. Ingram and his accomplices were found guilty of cheating by a jury, but maybe if they’d used a slightly less obvious audible system… [url]
• The 2012 National Scrabble Championship was marred by a boy caught palming blank tiles. Cheating at Scrabble is considered such a rare event that a fake wunderkind caught red handed made national news. [url]
• Surprise: students enrolled in online classes with Coursera have been found cheating with dozens of cases of alleged plagiarism. Students don’t (currently) earn any real credits from these classes, but that will likely change someday. So when more online classes actually have value, there will be far more than a few dozen cheaters. [url]

If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

Filed Under: cheating, game shows, millionaire, online classes, plagiarism, scams, scrabble
Companies: coursera

DailyDirt: Teaching Technology

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

More and more online classes are appearing, and a lot of non-traditional students are trying out these kinds of classes. But the effectiveness of online learning and self-taught students hasn’t gotten that much attention. Someday, online education might be the norm, but so far, it doesn’t quite look like e-learning has proven itself. Here are just a few articles on the topic of teaching with technology.

• Self-serve teaching technology has its place, but it might also be displacing human educators — is that a problem? Teachers aren’t necessarily objecting to the use of technology as a tool, but some teachers in Idaho (and elsewhere) want teaching technology to be deployed more effectively — without reducing the importance of teachers in the classroom. [url]
• One of the largest states in India is launching its own education social network to connect subject matter experts with students. Will the government of Rajasthan be able to jump into e-learning and leapfrog over the infrastructural challenges and illiteracy rates? [url]
• MIT is developing a certification process for its open education projects. MITx students will not receive degrees from MIT, but a yet-to-be-named non-profit organization within MIT will award certificates of completion to students who demonstrate a mastery of MITx subjects made available online. [url]
• To discover more interesting education-related content, check out what’s currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: e-learning, education, mitx, online classes, teachers
Companies: mit