Once a Whiff, Always a Whiff

As We May Think

A wonderful essay by Vannevar Bush from the July 1945 Atlantic Magazine about how scientists should make the transition to peacetime research.

Conversation with Randall Munroe

As tempted as I am to just post every xkcd.com strip and his new "What If" column as well, I will just post the link to the Atlantic news article interviewing him.

Call Me Maybe (1000% slower)

This is much better.

The Popinator

Sit on it, Tufte

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2012/09/12/160996525/odd-things-happen-when-you-chop-up-cities-and-stack-them-sideways

WHERE GOOD IDEAS COME FROM by Steven Johnson

Education For Whom and For What?

Initial thoughts about educational disruption

There are three parts to it. The first has to do with the disintermediation of schools from the lecturing and teaching that goes into a lecture class, so that the best classes can be recorded and replayed around the world over and over. It means that we don't have to put up with mediocre lessons about any subject as soon as a good lesson on that subject has been given. And it means that there is going to be an inexorable move from live lectures to recorded ones, not only because the cost savings will make it compelling, but because the quality will actually go up.

The second has to do with the quantification of teaching into bite-sized, Khan-Academy formatted lessons. This will have the impact on classes that the palletization of goods, the shipping containerization of trade, and the digitizing and standard IP packetization of data had on the transfer of data. As soon as that standard sized lesson takes over, it will standardize (and erode) the variability of teaching styles. Maybe people will still hold on to longer form lessons, just as there is still music that is written that doesn't fall into the standard 3 minute pop song format. But what percentage of the songs and music are not that length? Not much. What percentage of phone calls are analog? Not many. And what percentage of goods are not shipped via pallets and shipping containers? Not much, particularly in comparison to what is sent that way. Other goods are sent via other means, but they are usually luxury goods or bulk raw materials. Fair enough -- there will always be a market for the bespoke suit, the hand-made car, the original painting, and the private school education, but that will become the purview of the 1%, and that's not really where I think we should all aspire to be.

The third part is the impact these two forces will have on education. These forces will result in an inexorable squeezing of the standard model of education into a new model. Much of the classroom time will be the result of "flipped" homework and class assignments. Students will watch videos and listen to lectures and see sample problems worked out at home. They might blog about their questions or other observations they gleaned from the lecture as a way to take notes and stay engaged with the matierial as it is being presented. Then, when it comes to actually following through on what they've learned -- that will happen in class where there can be interaction and feedback and getting questions answered (although the class could post questions and have them answered, as a way to earn karma points for extra credit). The focus will be better in class on the kinds of problems or writing that they need to master, partly because everyone will be working on the same kinds of tasks (peer pressure) and partially because there will be fewer distractions of the kinds that kids have at home or each other's houses.

From there it is only a small step to a virtual model of classes, which will allow students and teachers to find times to meet via videochat in order to find times that work for everyone. I don't know how to resolve the cheating issues, except to say that at some point the potential employees or students need to be held accountable, and while it will bear a passing resemblance to virtual study hall, it is clear to me that there is probably a way of doing this.


http://www.quickanded.com/2012/09/the-curious-birth-of-the-credit-hour.html

The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics

Thought experiment about disintermediating education

There will be a post here, probably tomorrow, about the process underway that is disintermediating education from schools back to people.  The combination of online courses offered from excellent schools:

http://chronicle.com/article/Teaching-to-the-World-From/134068/

along with the atomization of particular lessons via Khan Academy

http://www.khanacademy.org/

has the potential to disrupt the education marketplace, as foretold by Clayton Christensen in

Disrupting Class

More to follow tonight, and it may end up being in three parts over the next few nights.  I'm not sure.

Math Resources

http://www.mathigon.org/