The Big Idea That Can Revolutionize Higher Education: 'MOOC' - Laura McKenna - Business Massive open online courses combine the best of college -- exceptional instruction -- with the best of technology -- online interactive learning. Is this the future of efficient, effective education? Reuters In the historic sweep of technology, higher education stands apart as a bastion of old-fashioned thinking. Daphne Koller, a professor of Computer Science at Stanford University and the co-founder of Coursera, a free online classroom, believes that Hennessy is right. Coursera is a massive online open classroom -- or MOOC -- that operates in conjunction with four top universities - Stanford, University of Pennsylvania, the University of Michigan, and Princeton. Earlier this month, Coursera was joined by another Ivy League MOOC, edX. Students who complete the course would be offered a certificate, rather than college credit. Offer high-quality products at a low price, consumers tend to notice. These classes seem to attract a largely international student body.
VGo Is a Robot That Goes to School or Work for You [PICS] NEW ORLEANS — Soon your child may go to school with a robot. Meet VGo, a robotic telepresence being used in schools, healthcare, and business for videoconferencing from afar. Running on Verizon's 4G LTE network, VGo is already being used in a variety of situations -– including schools. Students who can't attend school due to an illness or handicap can instead virtually attend classes via VGo. Unlike other telepresence system where the camera is stationary, VGo is a robot on wheels allowing a student to adjust where the camera is pointed, talk to their teacher and classmates, and even hit the road for their next class. Getting online every morning rather than on the school bus, VGo not only lets a student attend class but also lets him or her do things like interact with friends in the hall or experience demonstrations that might happen outside of a traditional classroom. We had a chance to check out VGo in person at CTIA in New Orleans.
Online courses could lead to big changes Online education is getting a sudden burst of media attention. That’s because the two biggest brands in the business — Harvard and MIT — announced a multimillion-dollar program to deliver some courses online. And since these schools are widely admired, other colleges and universities are asking questions about what they should be doing with online learning. But this leads to a fundamental question: Why do people go to college? What’s all the online-education fuss about? Does this sound like an irresistible offer to you? So if pricing is a market signal, what message is the free edX sending out to consumers and suppliers of higher education? What Harvard and MIT and the other globally leading schools offer students are two priceless assets: branding and professional networks. And maybe this explains why some of the best are starting their own companies to commercialize the brands they have forged in top universities. But programs like edX raise another question: Would CEOs like Mr.
The Coming Meltdown in College Education & Why The Economy Won’t Get Better Any Time Soon This is what I see when i think about higher education in this country today: Remember the housing meltdown ? Tough to forget isn’t it. Until the easy money stopped. Can someone please explain to me how what is happening in higher education is any different ? Its far too easy to borrow money for college. We freak out about the Trillions of dollars in debt our country faces. The point of the numbers is that getting a student loan is easy. You know who knows that the money is easy better than anyone ? Why wouldn’t they act in the same manner as real estate agents acted during the housing bubble? The President has introduced programs that try to reward schools that don’t raise tuition and costs. Except those great jobs aren’t always there. At some point potential students will realize that they can’t flip their student loans for a job in 4 years. As an employer I want the best prepared and qualified employees. The competition from new forms of education is starting to appear.
More private colleges offering tuition discounts | McClatchy Tribune News Service WASHINGTON — The cost of a college education continues to increase faster than inflation; a phenomenon that's roiling family budgets and spurring calls for action on Capitol Hill. But with a little digging, parents and students can find cost-cutting deals and programs that make the paper chase a lot more affordable. While public colleges and universities are hiking tuition to make up for dramatic reductions to state higher-education funding, private colleges – which usually receive no state funding – have greater latitude to cut costs. That’s one reason that average annual tuition increases at public colleges have been more than twice as large as those at private colleges over the last decade, according to the College Board Advocacy & Policy Center. As more students question whether to take on massive tuition debt only to end up with degrees but no jobs, many private colleges are offering discount deals that cut, freeze or even eliminate tuition altogether for incoming students.
Minnesota educators learn how to use social media in school Mahtomedi High School language arts teacher Sarah Lorntson, who uses Twitter to communicate with students, says students complain "that I don't tweet enough." ( Pioneer Press: Scott Takushi) Mahtomedi High School language arts teacher Sarah Lorntson reminds her students about assignment deadlines and shares writing advice even when they're not in her classroom. She takes to the social media sphere, using Twitter to capture students' attention in 140 characters or less. Lorntson said many of her students have smartphones and are constantly plugged into social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. So, it made sense for her to start tweeting, giving her another way to reach out to them. "My students' constant complaint is that I don't tweet enough," Lorntson said. As the use of social media explodes, school districts are grappling with if and how teachers should connect with students via online networking. "It was an eye-opening experience," Swiecichowski said.
Harvard And MIT Join Forces To Become Juggernaut Of Free Online Education Harvard and MIT join forces to bring the world education for free...in superhero fashion. Online education is witnessing its own Avengers-like uniting of superhero forces as Harvard University and MIT recently announced “edX”, a combined $60 million joint initiative to offer their college-level courses online for free. Launching in the fall of 2012, edX is a not-for-profit organization formed by the two universities to bring each institution’s free online course offerings to a broader global audience. Courses will be delivered through the open source MITx platform in development to host courses that were previously part of the OpenCourseWare program. As with the MITx initiative, edX plans to issue certificates (possibly costing a small fee) to students for completing courses; however, course completion will not earn college credits at either institution and the certificates will be issued from edX, not through either university. Video streaming by Ustream
Intro to AI - Introduction to Artificial Intelligence - Oct-Dec 2011 Is U.S. Higher Education A Bubble Economy? (Infographic Video) Plenty of smart people seem to think there’s a bubble in higher education. And for good reason: The cost of a college education is skyrocketing and student debt is growing out of control, at the very same time that college graduates are struggling to find jobs. When they do, it’s often in positions that hardly require any of the "critical thinking" they were told a college education would teach them. Critics might count all this as mere alarmism--but the data backing up the trends is so freakin’ crazy. So what’s going to happen in the face of all this data? The "market" for higher education simply isn’t pure enough. Thus, the colleges and lenders pushing student loans upon kids know that they can pile on crazy dollar amounts and never have that debt erased in bankruptcy court. But enough economics! The point I’m trying to make is simply that there’s a huge opportunity for a different sort of education experience, one based on the real-world rather than the fantasy life of academia.
Business - Jordan Weissmann - Why the Internet Isn't Going to End College As We Know It Don't believe the hype: Nobody has figured out how to replace traditional higher education yet, and they're not about to. Thomas Barrat / Flickr The idea that the Internet is about to do to college what it's done to journalism and entertainment seems to be coming dangerously close to conventional wisdom in certain elite circles. Here's blogger/economist Tyler Cowen yesterday at the Aspen Ideas Festival: Look at the music industry. It's not just the bloggers. There is no question that the web will change the way people learn. New innovations don't disrupt old industries by merely competing with them. As George Washington University's David Karpf has noted, if the Internet is to conquer higher education, it needs to hit colleges in the pocket book. The simple truth is that nobody has figured out how to build a cheap, high-quality online university. Worse yet, these schools are expensive. For-profits aren't the only institutions getting in on the online education act.