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BitTorrent and Khan Academy To Distribute Education

Posted by Soulskill on from the racing-to-zero-cost-education dept.

drDugan writes "BitTorrent, Inc. announced this morning that they have launched a partnership with the Khan Academy to distribute open education videos. They launched with more than 2,000 videos, covering high school and college level curriculum, across science, math, history, finance and test prep. All of the videos are free to download and open licensed with Creative Commons."

7 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. FIRST! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    KHAAAAAAN!

  2. Proof... by mswhippingboy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    that bittorrent can be used for legit purposes. Hopefully as a side benifit, this will make it harder for the MPAA crowd to villify these types of file sharing networks.

    --
    Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is the headlight of an oncoming train.
    1. Re:Proof... by rainmouse · · Score: 3, Insightful

      that bittorrent can be used for legit purposes. Hopefully as a side benifit, this will make it harder for the MPAA crowd to villify these types of file sharing networks.

      Though the threat to private Colleges and Universities that free learning poses could actually further fund and empower the MPAA.

  3. Human video projectors by mrcaseyj · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So why do we have all these highly intelligent expensive professors wasting their time standing in front of hundreds of students in a lecture hall reciting their teaching script like a human video projector? Let the best lecturers in the country make videos and let the students send in questions and assemble a frequently asked questions list and then put those professors to work doing research for the benefit of humanity.

    1. Re:Human video projectors by Lazareth · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Because teaching itself both builds character and strengthen your knowledge in your field. Because that human "video projector" is a human, readily able to take questions at any given time during the lecture.

      I'm not saying anything against video lectures. These things are great and it helps to open up and spread information around for the benefit of all. But they're not the same thing. They can be a substitute, but they're not for everybody. Some of use need those human video projectors to get through our education. Some of use need a mix of both.

    2. Re:Human video projectors by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 3, Informative

      Because when they do that, they cease to be expensive.

      Let's face it, most classes could be taught by lecture with a live human audience for the first recording (those people will get most of the obvious questions that the professor answers over and over and over and over) and teaching assistants.

      But, then you wouldn't need the professor again.

      It's like newspaper columnists. When we had local papers you needed them.

      But with national news media available, you really only need a dozen or so columnists in each area. Every one else is mostly redundant.

      You could literally have a dozen college calculus teachers in the entire world.

      Lowering the cost of providing calculus by 90%.

      Same for most other undergraduate courses.

      Only courses where the students actually need to talk interactively with the professor (very few) need human professors.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
  4. *This* is the type of thing that makes me smile by StuartHankins · · Score: 4, Interesting

    At a time when so many things are wrong in this world, Khan Academy is helping countless people improve their lives through education. The help of BitTorrent brings this to even more people. Truly awesome and many thanks!