Can Your Education Keep Pace with Technology?

Source: Fortune, Mar 2012

Incomes in the broad middle have gone nowhere for more than 20 years after rising slowly but steadily through most of the 20th century

. Why? Many theories have been advanced, but the one that holds up best is set out by Harvard economists Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz in articles and a book, The Race Between Education and Technology. The economy continually demands higher-level skills from workers, they argue, and for most of the 20th century the U.S. workforce kept up. In 1900 few people stayed in school past eighth grade; by 1970 a large majority finished high school, and many went on to college. American workers became the world’s best-educated and earned the rewards.

The problem is that the middle class isn’t supplying the new skills that the world is demanding.

Tapping into Online Education for Detailed Data

Source: NYTimes, Mar 2012

At Stanford University, an intriguing big-data experiment in online education is under way. Last year, three computer science courses, including videos and assignments, were put online. Hundreds of thousands of students have registered and participated in the courses.

The courses generate huge amounts of data on how students learn, what teaching strategies work best and what models do not, said Daphne Koller, a professor at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

In most education research, teaching methods are tested in small groups, comparing results in different classrooms, Ms. Koller explained. With small sample groups, research conclusions tend to be uncertain, she said, and results are often not available until tests at the end of school semesters.

But in an online class of 20,000 students, whose every mouse click is tracked in real time, the research can be more definitive and more immediate, Ms. Koller said.

“If 5,000 people had the same wrong answer, it’s obvious a concept is not getting through, and you have a clear path that shows where students went wrong,” she said.

That kind of data tracking in education, she said, provides “an opportunity no one has exploited yet.”

Stanford education online …

Source: Wired, Mar 2012

Last fall, the university in the heart of Silicon Valley did something it had never done before: It opened up three classes, including CS221, to anyone with a web connection. Lectures and assignments—the same ones administered in the regular on-campus class—would be posted and auto-graded online each week. Midterms and finals would have strict deadlines. Stanford wouldn’t issue course credit to the non-matriculated students. But at the end of the term, students who completed a course would be awarded an official Statement of Accomplishment.

People around the world have gone crazy for this opportunity. Fully two-thirds of my 160,000 classmates live outside the US. There are students in 190 countries—from India and South Korea to New Zealand and the Republic of Azerbaijan. More than 100 volunteers have signed up to translate the lectures into 44 languages, including Bengali. In Iran, where YouTube is blocked, one student cloned the CS221 class website and—with the professors’ permission—began reposting the video files for 1,000 students.

Becoming a Better Student

Source: Mindshift, Mar 2012

Students can assess their own awareness by asking themselves which of the following learning strategies they regularly use (the response to each item is ideally “yes”):

• I draw pictures or diagrams to help me understand this subject.
• I make up questions that I try to answer about this subject.
• When I am learning something new in this subject, I think back to what I already know about it.
• I discuss what I am doing in this subject with others.
• I practice things over and over until I know them well in this subject,
• I think about my thinking, to check if I understand the ideas in this subject.
• When I don’t understand something in this subject I go back over it again.
• I make a note of things that I don’t understand very well in this subject, so that I can follow them up.
• When I have finished an activity in this subject I look back to see how well I did.
• I organize my time to manage my learning in this subject.
• I make plans for how to do the activities in this subject.

These questions, too, can be adopted by any parent or educator to make sure that children know not just what is to be learned, but how.

• What is the topic for today’s lesson?
• What will be important ideas in today’s lesson?
• What do you already know about this topic?
• What can you relate this to?
• What will you do to remember the key ideas?
• Is there anything about this topic you don’t understand, or are not clear about?

March 2012 Update

The Summary:

• KA-BM version 2.0 (down to the level of learning objectives)
• Number of Malay/Bahasa Melayu translations completed thus far: 58 (as of March 2012)
• 11th March 2012 TV Interview about the Khan Academy 
• Reaching out to the PPSMI folks 

The Details

 

KA-BM version 2.0 (down to the level of learning objectives). 

 

KA-BM version 1 identified KA video-clips at the level of topics.  However, we have realized that it’s worthwhile (though very time-consuming) to curate KA video-clips to the level of learning objectives.  

 

Thus Suhaimi and his team have started doing so with Form 4 math (= 65 KA video-clips), and will eventually handle math/additional math for the other Forms. 

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AmtqiVRRg1I2dHQtWDJrRUktR3JodWpCWm52V0t1Q2c&output=html

 

Number of Translations Completed Thus Far: 58

 

Based upon the information contained here: 

http://khan-report.appspot.com/translations/subtitlestatus?language=Malay&playlist=all&display=1 

 

 

Please note that Education Republic, a for-profit organization, is working on KA content that correspond to the primary school content.  Fortunately, there’s no overlap because we are concentrating upon the secondary school curriculum.  

 

11th March 2012 TV Interview about the Khan Academy

Video:

• http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7401696n

News report: 

• http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57394905/khan-academy-the-future-of-education/?pageNum=5&tag=contentMain;contentBody

We are discussing with some Malaysian educators about the flipped classroom mentioned in the interview. 

 

Reaching out to the PPSMI folks  

 

We have reached out to the pro-PPSMI folks to share about the potential of using the KA content as an “outside the school” opportunity for learning mathematics in English, and have shared the following presentation with a CPS person. 

• http://www.slideshare.net/fullscreen/kabm-admin/sharing-kabm-with-aspire/1 

In addition, I have shared via the PPSMI FB page: 

• http://www.facebook.com/groups/1MMalaysiansSayYes2PPSMI/ 

 

 

KA for the Masses

Source: TechCrunch, Mar 2012

ShowMe wants to bring the classroom-flipping power of Khan Academy’s platform to the millions of teachers out there looking to share their knowledge and experience with students of every age. “We want to create thousands of Sal Khans,” ShowMe CEO San Kim tells us, taking Khan’s approach and turning into a community and P2P-based model.

To do so, the startup built an iPad app (with a corresponding web platform) that transforms the device into an interactive video whiteboard, allowing teachers of all stripes to record lessons while speaking into the iPad’s microphone and drawing on the accompanying touchscreen whiteboard. Once those instructors have created a video, they can then be shared on the app or on the Web, where other users can peruse through videos, voting them up, and sharing their own favorites.

Since the app debuted on the App Store last summer, it has racked up over 400K downloads (which is impressive for an educational app), and Kim tells us that ShowMe teachers have now created over 1.5 million lessons. ShowMe’s technology is also now powering Princeton Review’s SAT prep app.

The half-life of any skill is 5 years

Source: Radar O’Reilly, Mar 2012

John Seely Brown tells us the half-life of any skill is about five years. This astounding metric is presented as part of the ongoing discussion of how education needs to change radically in order to prepare students for a world which is very different than the one their parents graduated into, and in which change is accelerating.

It’s pretty straightforward to recognize that new job categories, such as data science, will require new skills. The first-order solution is to add data science as a college curriculum and work the prerequisites backward to kindergarten. But if JSB is right about the half-life of skills, even if this process were instantaneous, the learning path begun in kindergarten might be obsolete by middle school.

The second-order solution is to include meta-skills into the curriculum — ensuring young people learn how to learn, for instance, so that they can adapt as new skills are required with increasing frequency. This is essential, but raises the question of how to stay ahead of the skills curve — what are the next critical things to learn, how do you know, and how do you find them?

John Seely Brown and co-author Douglas Thomas propose in their book “A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change” a third-order solution, which is to inculcate the mindsets and dispositions that will lead us, as independent agents, to the things that matter. These include curiosity, questing, and connecting.

Li Ka-Shing: AI to improve education

Source: Forbes, Mar 2012

Li has become particularly fascinated by the sweeping potential of artificial intelligence across all his businesses. In addition to his $7.5 million investment in Siri, the now ubiquitous iPhone virtual assistant, he gave $300,000 last December to a startup that uses AI in its summarization search engine, Summly, run by a 16-year-old.

One of the biggest AI impacts, he believes, will come in education, where customized learning will become “closely knitted” to individual devices. “AI has reached an inflection point,” he says. “Combined with the high-speed mobile network, disruption in several industries will be unavoidable.”

“Businesspeople in general shouldn’t have an overly narrow view of their industry,” he says, explaining his interest in Europe at a time when others see a cloudy future. Rather, they “need a 360-degree perspective and to look at everything from all possible angles.”

That’s in part why even now Li tries daily to read books about science, economics, politics and philosophy. In February he was deep into a history about an influential political leader during China’s Ming dynasty, Zhang Juzheng. “I know how to find peace within my heart and soul,” he says. “If I have a rare vacation, I will spend it reading.” His curiosity about the world and openness to it is summed up in the spirit of a Chinese-style calligraphy painting behind his desk. “Set your goals high; make friends with different kinds of people; enjoy simple pleasures. Stand on high ground; sit on level ground; walk on expansive ground.”

Connected Learning

Source: MacArthur foundation website, Mar 2012

A team of researchers has introduced a new learning model that aims to tap into the potential of information and online collaboration available to youth in their daily lives.

“We are seeing a growing gap between in-school and out-of-school learning as more and more of young people’s learning, attention, and access to information is happening outside of classrooms and through online networks and exchanges,” 

Here’s more from the researchers’ description of connected learning:

This approach proposes knitting together of three crucial contexts for learning:

Interest-powered…Research has repeatedly shown that when a subject is personally interesting and relevant, learners achieve much higher-order learning outcomes.

Peer-supported…In their everyday exchanges with peers and friends, young people are fluidly contributing, sharing and giving feedback in web-powered experiences that are highly engaging.

Academically oriented…When academic studies and institutions draw from and connect to young people’s interest-driven pursuits, learners flourish and realize their true potential.

…and the embrace of three key design principles:

Production-centered…Connected learning prioritizes the learning that comes from actively producing, creating, experimenting and designing, because it promotes skills and dispositions for lifelong learning, and for making meaningful contributions to today’s rapidly changing work- and social conditions.

Open networks…Today’s online platforms and digital tools can make learning resources abundant, accessible, and visible across all learner settings.

Shared purpose…Today’s social media and web-based communities provide unprecedented opportunities for cross-generational and cross-cultural learning and connection to unfold and thrive around common goals and interests.

“I don’t think there’s anyone in education and learning who doesn’t feel an urgent need to reimagine learning for the new century,” said Connie Yowell, director of education for U.S. programs at MacArthur.

“Our schools are struggling to prepare young people for fulfilling adult lives and careers. Connected learning represents a path forward,” Yowell said. “It’s learning that is socially rich and interest-fueled. In other words, it’s based on the kind of learning that decades of research shows is the most powerful, most effective. And connected learning is oriented towards cultivating educational and economic opportunity for all young people.”

Bestarinet Presentation

Source: Slideshare.Net, Dec 2011