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Google Announces Project 10^100 Winners
Kilrah_il writes with news that Google has selected winners for Project 10^100, a contest to find the best ideas to change the world. Among the winners is the Khan Academy, which we've discussed previously. Google is "providing $2 million to support the creation of more courses and to enable the Khan Academy to translate their core library into the world’s most widely spoken languages." The other winning projects are: FIRST, an organization fostering math and science education through team competition; Public.Resource.Org, a government transparency effort focused on online access to public documents; Shweeb, a silly-looking method of human-powered urban transit; and the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, a center aimed at promoting graduate-level math and science education in Africa.
KHAAAAN!
We tend not to like travelling because it’s uncomfortable, there’s not much space, not enough leg room, we spend our time stuck in traffic or on a broken down train... and we are completely powerless to do anything about it.
The design principles of Shweeb aim to put you, the traveller, back in control of your own space, time and power.
Their design seems to consist of locking oneself in a suspended bubble and peddling your way to your destination. So....to clarify, they talk about the problems of transportation including not having enough leg room or space, and their solution is for you to lock yourself in a bubble....hmmmmm.
Honestly, after looking at that project, I have to ask, "Why the hell wouldn't I just walk to my destination? Or ride my bike?"
Motorcycles, Robots, Space Gossip and More!
With 10^100 winners it brings a whole new meaning to 'everyone's a winner!'
Seriously. That's the best you can come up with? I agree that it's completely oblivious to reality, if that's what you meant by "the most forward-looking vision".
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
I've submitted my ideas in order of excellence:
1. Cowboy Neal breeds with Britney Spears, embryo placed on next Voyager spacecraft
2. Duke Nukem Forever gets released on the iPhone
3. Cached copies of goatse.cx for all mankind
4. Raze Hope College to get rid of the world riff-raff
5. Rename the GPL,the GNU Pubic License, just for the Lulz.
Wrong. I've participated in FIRST since its inception at my high school two years ago, and the only thing that's "forced" on you is the goal to build the best damn robot you can while being polite and helpful to other teams at the meets. The teams are not required to use Labview, as there have been code libraries developed for both Java and C++ in the past. Last year in fact, we had a program in Java developed in part with another team and we were helped by several other teams at the meet who helped us optimize our code (at the time, we had no full-time Java programmers which kinda stunk). And the objective is not to get people hooked on National Instruments; in my limited experience it's been to inspire high schoolers to be both polite and professional, two concepts that are generally not fostered in high schoolers these days. FIRST isn't about some corporate scheme to brainwash high schoolers into thinking National Instruments are the only thing out there to use (which, after even a year of participating you'd realize that some hardware given to you will be the absolute least of your issues at a meet), it's about...well, I'd suggest you read their mission statement:
"Our mission is to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership."
I mean, come on. At a bare minimum it's a noble cause, and that's before the years that they've been doing this for. FIRST works, not as a way to get kids hooked on National Instruments, but as a way to expose high schoolers to not only a very high level of electronics, engineering, and teamwork that wouldn't be seen until they actually got full time jobs and worked on projects.
As a former educator (middle and high school Social Studies) and a current researcher of new technology and learning science I get frustrated about the amount of praise given to the Khan Academy.
I applaud Khan's effort and I'm sure the videos do help some people but I draw the line at it deserving a two million dollar grant for growth. What are these videos other than direct instruction (i.e. the traditional lecture)? We have a lot of evidence that direct instruction is a very inefficient way to learn something. Furthermore, access to videos only helps those who have the required internet connection and are intrinsically motivated to seek out the knowledge (the typical Slashdot user might fit that model but I assure the rest of the world does not).
Shouldn't there be some some scientific testing of the effectiveness of the Khan Academy before giving it $2million to expand. The summary even calls the videos courses! Courses have an implied pedagogical trajectory that helps learner gain some level of mastery on the subject being taught. These videos barely qualify.
Because:
... mostly.
Microsoft wouldn't know a good idea if it bit them on the ass these days.
Oracle has contests like this and then they try to figure out ways to sue the winners.
Steve Jobs thinks everyone else's ideas suck.
I kid
I just keep hearing how "evil" Google is becoming... but they do stuff like this when nobody else seems to. These types of projects are the kinds of things an idealistic socialist government would do... yet here's a capitalist organisation doing them.
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As a person who graduated from a major state college with a minor in math about 3 years ago, I really wish I had even one math teacher in my entire schooling experience who was even half as good of a teacher as Salmon Khan. I've gone over his Calculus videos, because I felt my Calculus skills were lacking, as I'd originally been taught by a lady who could just barely speak English. In my opinion, these videos represent a better educational experience than about 95% of the school that I've attended. I've had a few better classes in person, but most "teachers" are barely qualified, in my personal experience.
Something to understand about Khan's videos, they can be helpful to anyone who can speak English. There are numerous reports of it being a useful tool for students in Africa. Many students have used it to pass the California Algebra I standards test. I suppose there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that it's effective, nobody's done a major study yet.
About a month ago, Slashdot posted an article about a 578 million dollar high school being built. Now you're demonizing Google for giving 1/289th that amount to an institution that will likely reach 50+ times the audience, who are probably more in need of a better education anyway? I don't think that makes any sense at all.
In the business world, two million dollars is chump change. Angel investors throw a lot more money than that at an idea without scientific evidence of it working. This seems like an excellent opportunity to throw a little money at an interesting education opportunity, and see how it pays off.