Sebastian Thrun resigned as a tenured professor at Stanford to pursue his own vision of online learning at udacity.com. He made his decision after 160,000 students from around the world signed up for the artificial intelligence class he offered online for free this fall.
Watch today’s announcement as he shares some really remarkable insights about the power of online teaching and learning. Really inspiring!
(Hint: skip the inane introduction and jump to Thrun’s talk at 2:20.)
I used to think that technology could help education. I’ve probably spearheaded giving away more computer equipment to schools than anybody else on the planet. But I’ve had to come to the inevitable conclusion that the problem is not one that technology can hope to solve. What’s wrong with education cannot be fixed with technology. No amount of technology will make a dent. It’s a political problem.
Source: Wired
UK universities earn millions collecting overdue library fines
Universities have raised almost £50m (US $77 million) from fining students for overdue library books in the past six years.… With fines as little as 10p for each day a book is overdue, it shows that students are returning thousands of books late each year.
— The Guardian
So what will they do when “books” are no longer “returnable”?
Writing scientific papers is rather like writing poetry in an ancient verse form. Everything you want to say has to be forced into predetermined sections: introduction, method, results, discussion. You must never say “I,” and the passive tense is preferred. Inevitably all the interesting things get left out.
I have recently argued that the one useful response to today’s teacher shortage is to expand sites of recruitment to places as yet untouched by teacher recruitment drives: state prisons, homeless shelters, gay bars, and blighted urban neighborhoods. At first I made this suggestion ironically, but as I had time to reflect on the challenges we face in recruiting teachers committed to social change rather than in reproducing the status quo, I have come to consider this strategy more seriously. If we are trying to shift our system of public education away from its role as a reproducer of social inequities, then we need teachers who are willing to challenge the status quo. Better yet, we need teachers with experience in challenging the status quo. Those who survive on the margins of society acquire an intense experience of being the outsider. These outlaws and social misfits may be more likely to advocate for the radical transformation of ideologies and for the dramatic restructuring of systems of education than are the traditional pool of people whom we cycle through teacher preparation programs.
What would our schools look like if their faculties were comprised of ex-cons, queers, and street people? How might the life chances of all children be different were there more welfare mothers working as elementary educators? If we filled our classrooms with people with heightened experiences of resisting and countering abuse, victimization, marginalization, and approbation, would we succeed at moving school closer to our social justice aims than if we continued to hire all the Miss Jean Brodys and Jaime Escalantes of the world?
- Tim De Chent, If the world’s population lived in one city… via Per Square Mile
So, if we can move past the haphazard historical, cultural, and biological reasons that people live where they currently are, we could pick a few hundred places in the world where there are good reasons to live, and move all the people to those places. Places with reliable water, equitable climates, available farmland. And then we can rewild the rest of the world.
The problem with geographically based infographics is that land area bears no relationship to population. This infographic is not about population, and neither is it about land area. It is about the relationship between population and land area: the vast differences in population density among the world’s large cities.
Montana is David and New Jersey is Goliath in terms of population, the inverse of their geographical relationship. Politically this greatly skews the perception of influence among the lightly populated states in the middle of the country and the heavily populated states on the coasts. Most media use state outline maps to represent winners and losers in elections (the Red States vs the Blue States) even though a state’s geography is not visually representative of its population (or Electoral College votes). The same is true for county-based maps in state elections.
So what does this infographic really say? People who live in Paris, New York, and Singapore live closer to their neighbors than those who live in San Francisco, London and Houston. Of course, Houston is the outlier here. It’s the fourth largest city in the US, larger in area than New York and Chicago combined, and more than 100 square miles larger than Los Angeles. Its 2 million residents have plenty of elbow room.
Density matters.
Source: persquaremile.com
“Stop the presses!”
Des Moines Register redesigns front page six times in just five hours on Iowa Caucus night.
via copydesk.org
Close Photoshop and Grab a Pencil: The Lost Art of Thumbnail Sketches (via Design Shack)
Excellent article with solid advice on designing with an underused technology: the humble pencil.
Source: wireframes
The 11 Best Science Books of 2011
— by Maria Popova, via Brain Pickings
Q:I came across your blog, and I think a project I'm working one fits nicely with what you're talking about, specifically visual learning. Interesting how things fall so parallel sometimes, well great blog! Check mine out if you'd like to see more about the project
Thanks so much for taking a moment to comment! I’m glad you enjoy the blog. Your book looks like a really interesting project, especially with your mix of old school and digital techniques. (Nice brain illustration — I just reblogged.) Best wishes for success with your project!
One of the first watercolors for the book! Unlocking the Right Brain will features images made with a mix of traditional and digital techniques.
Quite a lovely brain illustration! Even better, the type in the book will be printed letterpress!
— Visual Turn
Source: rightbrainbook
- Students are drawn to hot technologies, but they rely on more traditional devices
- Students report technology delivers major academic benefits
- Students report uneven perceptions of institutions’ and instructors’ use of technology
- Facebook generation students juggle personal and academic interactions
- Students prefer, and say they learn more in, classes with online components
— ECAR National Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2011 Report
When an adult took standardized tests forced on kids
A school board member takes versions of his state’s standardized tests in math and reading, and realizes something is really wrong with these high-stakes exams.
— Washington Post
Source: Washington Post
