The name Sebastian Thrun may not mean much to you, but it should. And if it doesn’t now … it probably will at some point. Last year, Professor Thrun of Stanford University and his colleague Professor Norvig opened up an otherwise closed AI university course to the world. Instead of 200 students (tuition paying Stanford pupils) they ended up with what is arguably the world’s largest MOOC when they opened up enrolment to citizens of Earth. 160,000 students enrolled in their “Introduction to Artificial Intelligence” online version. For free. Oh, and those 200 paying customers? About 170 left the face-to-face version in favour of the ‘free’ online one. Amazingly, 20,000 people stuck around the course through to the final exam. Wherever you sit on the
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Rest assured, I am not against The Khan Academy … at least not entirely. There are several reasons to celebrate what its founder, Sal Khan, and the team have done: A discussion about ‘flipping the classroom’ (as the Economist helped point out) has become mainstream, if not a healthy obsession Outlets such as TED, Charlie Rose and even Stephen Colbert have helped push the topic of education reform to the masses by interviewing or showcasing Sal Khan Videos and learning have become an essential component of the learning cycle; as opposed to some form of babysitting tool. See this short video for an example Even vendors like Cisco are producing white papers outlining the benefits of video in education Where I take umbrage with The
For those that know me well, I’m a proud papa to three young goats aged 8, 6 and 4. My beloved is also in the education ranks (we met in Montreal through our B.Ed program at McGill University) so our goats have little choice in the matter of an all-education smorgasbord upbringing. The goats may end up demented, but that’s another story. I’ve got a story to share for any education institution at any level out there that believes learning isn’t part formal, informal and social. This past Sunday, around 3:30pm in the afternoon, the 8 year-old cracks open a formal learning asset (a book on science experiments) and shouts, “Hey Cate, let’s do an experiment.” Cate is the precocious 4 year-old. Claire, the 8
On the dates of 25 January through 26 January, 2012, I had the opportunity to participate for the first time in the Learning Without Frontiers “Future of Learning Conference and Festival” held at Olympia in London, England. As the title of this post suggests, I believe it truly is the TED of all Learning Conferences. And since 1990, I’ve attended roughly 100 different conferences of all shapes, forms and sizes so my sample size is relatively good. Over the duration of the two days, there were several keynote addresses sprinkled from a rich ocean of speakers. To complement the main event, several indoor igloos (termed ‘experience domes’ at the conference) housed vendors and sidebar discussions from other speakers and organizations. Why am I so smitten