Category Archives: Khan,Coursera,Etc
Comments about Coursera, Khan Academy and others using MOOC
Thought Leaders – Cerf, Sir John, Isaacson
A confluence of events and opportunities has caused me to return to recordings made during Global Learn Day Voyage Ten, October 2004 – to include this one with Sir John Daniel, Vint Cerf, Chief Internet Evangelist, Google, Blaine Berger and Hibbs.
Click the link below (audio recording only)
Audio recording Berger, Cerf, Daniels
Let us now fast-forward to a video of Vint Cerf, (Google Evangelist) Walter Isaacson and Dr Bob Kahn.
Then let us ask ourselves the this question:
Where is there — is there? – a “Headquarters” where these kinds of thought leaders can comfortably, affordably gather? Where both the ordinary folks and the extraordinary are likely to be?
Where the ideas and arguments advanced by Walter Isaacson in his brand new book The Innovators could be put on high display? A very compelling showcase – and stage – proving that physical collaboration is the single most powerful ingredient to speed up innovation, invention, disruption.
I believe there is such a place. Ready and waiting for Sir John, Vint and Walt to come there and tell us more on how they could help spearhead this Next Big Thing.
Flipped Classrooms Flipped Fraternity Houses
Today, in the world of academics and education the biggest buzz revolves around the word “flipped”. As in — “Flipped Classroom”….where the homework for the kids is to watch carefully prepared on-line videos lasting about 5-15 minutes. The following day, the videos would be discussed in intensive, highly interactive, ‘hands on’ classes where teacher and students are engaged in small groups. Read the rest of this entry
Adding “pop” to the MOOCs
In the world of higher education, all the talk these days is about MOOCs. That’s fine. Deservedly so.
But it seems to me there is a key element that is missing from this conversation….an element that Aaron Hirsh nailed in this NY Times September 8 article, A good read, as below Read the rest of this entry
Greenhouses, Mighty Oaks, Tall Acorn Growing
“From mighty oaks do tall acorns grow.”
Here, the “mighty oaks” are both physical and intellectual.
- Physically — 5,500 magnificent Fraternity and Sorority Houses on 800 college campuses; inside are 250,000 bedrooms that are idle and empty in the summer. Those Houses were built to enrich the lives of motivated kids during college. What better place to provide nutrients for kids who need it the most? What better time than in the summer?
Facebook, Amazon, Google – Missing the boat?
Leave it to Vanity Fair’s brilliant editor Graydon Carter to synthesize the sea change in marketing now underway. Read the rest of this entry
GLD – A Giving Machine
With all of the gazillion webinars, on-line and physical events all around the world, what makes Global Learn Day special? Here’s the short answer.
Part of it is, of course, the unique idea of a 24 hour 24 time zone undertaking where presenters, crew and audience are gathered on an imaginary 19th Century Clipper, the Franklin. On a Voyage that crosses all five Oceans of the world, And nobody has to go farther than their Smart Phone or their Desktop.
We know of no other 24 hour event which opens “where the planet begins the new day“, and closes on some speck in the far reaches of the Western Pacific. With real time physical participation from the South Pole to Outer Space. (And just about everywhere in between. Yes we did this by ham radio from both Poles and with the Russians aboard their Soyuz.)
We also don’t know of anyone else that works as hard as we do to “partner” with English speaking radio stations around the globe. What good is it to have jaw-dropping conversations about the great issues of our time if only a relative few ever hear what was said? Read the rest of this entry
On MOOCs By Sir John Daniel
December 18, 2012
Making Sense of MOOCs: Musings in a Maze of Myth,Paradox and Possibility
Sir John Daniel Fellow – Korea National Open University Education Master – DeTao Masters Academy, China
During my time as a Fellow at the Korea National Open University (KNOU) in September 2012 media and web coverage of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) was intense. Since one of the requirements of the fellowship was a research paper, exploring the phenomenon of MOOCs seemed an appropriate topic. This essay had to be submitted to KNOU on 25 September 2012 but the MOOCs story is still evolving rapidly. Read the rest of this entry
MOOCs – Not all they are cracked up to be?
Mark Alen, a PhD student in the field of Operations Research at Berkeley. posted the following a piece that is near and dear to my own thinking. I encourage readers here to visit Mark Alen’s blog, but have chose to quote his entire piece as below. Read the rest of this entry
What’s the Matter With MOOCs?
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education
July 6, 2012, 1:50 pm
One of the most interesting and maddening issues to emerge from the debacle at the University of Virginia over the past month has been the obsession that people far removed from the actual work of teaching college and university students have for MOOCs. Read the rest of this entry
To MOOC or Not to MOOC?
It seems at present that nearly every American college and university is wrestling with the question of whether to offer MOOCs (massive open online courses). There is something irresistibly seductive about the idea of simultaneously reaching thousands of students everywhere in the world, effectively seating them in an infinite virtual lecture hall. Indeed, the idea has taken on such allure that the University of Virginia (temporarily, as it turned out) fired its president, Teresa Sullivan, for among other things not jumping immediately on the online bandwagon. Read the rest of this entry
