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TED Education — Video Lessons For Students
New submitter EuNao writes "TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design), the organization based on 'ideas worth sharing,' launched a new initiative this past week. It is called TED-Ed, and it aims to engage students with unforgettable lessons. There are many places in the world where a wonderful teacher or mentor is teaching something mind-blowing, but as it stands now not many people have access to that powerful experience. Ted-Ed aims to bring that engaging experience to everyone who has an internet connection. Here are summaries and links to the nine videos that were initially released."
Three education related sites released this year:
In addition to the programming initiatives at Khan academy and MIT OCW that existed already.
We have dropouts/people who never went to college holding high positions (work with a bunch of such guys on open source projects) Why would people even go to college once this becomes mainstream?
Some apps are WYSIWYG. Some others are WYSIWTF.
Look, America has only ever produced a very, very small handful of scientists. The "one last generation of scientists" that you speak of is the only generation of scientists that American has produced!
Up until about 1970, essentially every significant "American" scientific discovery of accomplishment was the work of European-born and European-trained scientists and engineers. Working backward from 1970, the space program was mainly the work of Europeans. The atomic age was brought about by Europeans. Much of the digital age, including critical work involving the creation of transistors and semiconductors, was the work of Europeans. Most automotive and aviation technology was pioneered by Europeans. The techniques for building modern urban infrastructure were the work of Europeans. Railways and locomotives were invented by Europeans. The technology of the industrial revolution was the work of Europeans.
I hope you see the trend there. Europeans are responsible for virtually all of the technology available and widely used today.
American scientists only came into their own in the late 1960s and 1970s. Americans like Dennis Ritchie and Donald Knuth, for example, did perform some groundbreaking research. But then the whole Reagan Mistake of the 1980s took place, followed by "free trade", both of which essentially trashed the American economy, and also the funding for scientific discovery and education.
These days, illiteracy runs rampant throughout many parts of the United States. Without having basic reading abilities, it's impossible to learn even the most basic mathematics, and it's impossible to make any kind of a scientific contribution. Indeed, when you hear about American-based scientists today, many of them are from Japan, South Korea, India or China. It's the same situation as it was before the 1970s, except now it's Asian-born and Asian-trained scientists making the real discoveries and performing the real science.
As someone who's likely to end up as a university professor of math in a decade or so, online learning like this makes me wonder about my long-term job security. Why should I get paid to put together and give a lecture on material that an excellent lecturer and support staff have already thoroughly covered online? Sure, there's more to classroom learning than mutely listening to a lecture, but is there enough to justify the extraordinarily high cost of the alternative? Will it be tempting in a few years for a budget-conscious administrator to have undergraduates watch free online lectures with grad students doing all the support work (grading, office hours, recitations, etc.)?
I take some comfort in the fact that people are willing to pay through the nose for a prestigious education and that online education is currently a second-class citizen. Academic institutions are also very slow to change as a rule. My theoretical job is probably safe, but I don't know what the long term future holds. Residential undergraduate institutions stocked with professors giving lectures may become extremely rare as high quality, highly reproducible, efficient online learning improves and perhaps becomes mainstream.
The videos I watched remind me of that old TV show "Watch Me Wizard". Short and focused on a single facet of one topic, the video can hold your attention for a few minutes. They would be a good supplement in a traditional educational setting, kind of like a reading assignment.
They don't seem especially revolutionary though; and keep in mind that TED talks often subtly (or not so subtly) push their organization's political agenda.
I think that the Traditional College system is not the best fit for lot’s of jobs and there are better ways to learn and to show that you have skills.
Harvard Study: Too Much Emphasis On College Education?
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2011/0202/Does-everyone-need-a-college-degree-Maybe-not-says-Harvard-study [csmonitor.com] [CC] [MD] [GC]
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/02/02/harvard-study-hey-maybe-were-placing-too-much-emphasis-on-a-college-education/ [hotair.com] [CC] [MD] [GC]
“It would be fine if we had an alternative system [for students who don’t get college degrees], but we’re virtually unique among industrialized countries in terms of not having another system and relying so heavily on higher education,” says Robert Schwartz, who heads the Pathways to Prosperity project at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education.
Emphasizing college as the only path may actually cause some students – who are bored in class but could enjoy learning that’s more entwined with the workplace – to drop out, he adds. “If the image [of college] is more years of just sitting in classrooms, that’s not very persuasive.”
The United States can learn from other countries, particularly in northern Europe, Professor Schwartz says. In Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and Switzerland, for instance, between 40 and 70 percent of high-schoolers opt for programs that combine classroom and workplace learning, many of them involving apprenticeships. These pathways result in a “qualification” that has real currency in the labor market”
“It would be fine if we had an alternative system [for students who don’t get college degrees], but we’re virtually unique among industrialized countries in terms of not having another system and relying so heavily on higher education,” says Robert Schwartz, who heads the Pathways to Prosperity project at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education.
Emphasizing college as the only path may actually cause some students – who are bored in class but could enjoy learning that’s more entwined with the workplace – to drop out, he adds. “If the image [of college] is more years of just sitting in classrooms, that’s not very persuasive.”
The United States can learn from other countries, particularly in northern Europe, Professor Schwartz says. In Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and Switzerland, for instance, between 40 and 70 percent of high-schoolers opt for programs that combine classroom and workplace learning, many of them involving apprenticeships. These pathways result in a “qualification” that has real currency in the labor market”
http://ketchumgroup.net/blog/skills-needed-skills-defined/
“This determination could have long-range impact in the use of diplomas as blanket screening tools. Unlike industry-based certification, diplomas and degrees from schools seldom define demonstrated and assessed skills. This EEOC guidance could speed the adoption of skill-based, industry driven, skill certification. Currently, the US Department of Labor lists over 4,400 industry-based certifications on the Certification Finder at the CareerOneStop.com website. These certifications will rise in importance to employers while education-based credentials may fade. Effective skill development on the job requires a structured approach based on the defined skills used in the workplace. In such a structured OJT workplace, meeting this EEOC guidance will be readily accomplished, and new employees quickly trained in the need skills.”
A more accurate statement might be "by European-born Americans". The atomic age was not brought about in Europe, but only once Europeans from several nations emigrated to the United States, where they worked in a team of diverse ethnic origins (Germans, Hungarians, Americans, Poles, etc.), something that would've been unthinkable in Europe itself.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Your analysis of the TED talks by age and gender may be a bit whimsical, but you're in essence dead on.
The smug and tedious pretentiousness of the majority of TED presentations has been one of those Geek Truths That Dare Not Speak It's Name for years now. It's about two, maybe three years away from complete Burning Man Status (i.e., everyone knows it's time has come and gone, but there's still plenty of money to be made from the n00bs, so hush up...)
No mod points at the moment, alas, or I would have awarded either "insightful" or "funny" to parent post.
It needs to be noted, though, that while learning the details of commands in archaic interfaces is a mind clogging pursuit, learning how to learn that kind of detail, when you need to do it, is a critical skill in a changing world. And then of course there is the matter of acquiring the wisdom to know when it would be a good thing to study out the language, or when it makes more sense to just script out your profound new ideas in Perl or Python and get some dull minded C or C++ code monkey to do the scuttwork.
Will