Khan giving them a bit of scare? I bet...
If they do, then the universities really have it bad. Universities should leverage what sets them apart from autodidact studies. Mainly the social aspect and all the advantages that it entails.
MIT OpenCourseWare introduces courses designed for independent learners
11–20 of 40 posts
Re: MIT OpenCourseWare introduces courses designed for independent learners
#12Great to see that MIT are addressing the most important problem with OCW: organizing the knowledge intelligibly.
I'm currently having fun with their introduction to programming that uses Python: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-comput.... (Get the lectures on iTunes U.)
Granted, I don't know if that's the best gateway drug to programming, but it has the irrefutable advantage of assignments that apply the information. You always feel morose watching OCW lectures where the lecturer talks about an assignment that you'd love to do.
Re: MIT OpenCourseWare introduces courses designed for independent learners
#13I didn't realize OCW was meant for teachers... I thought it was for independent learners all along.
Re: MIT OpenCourseWare introduces courses designed for independent learners
#14As a young autodidact struggling to fit into the traditional education world this is a welcome gift. To me a traditional diploma granting institution is now akin to a rubber stamp. You're not paying for the education, you're paying for the brand under the assumption that it will get you a job. I could rant, but I plan on doing it in a cohesive and informed blog release or something at a later date. MIT diffuses my cy…
Well, by attending a traditional institution you're really paying firstly for experts to take partial responsibility for your learning, enough to stake some of their reputation on it, and secondly for entrance to a club of peers of similar ability to learn with. With more and more material available online, I can see how taking full responsibility for your own learning is less daunting than it once was. I'm still cur…
In my experience at one of those traditional institutions, those experts often couldn't care less about any responsibility to undergrads. Their job is to do research, and to get grants to support that research. The number of professors for whom teaching was clearly a nuisance was one of the most depressing parts of the experience.
Having similarly capable peers is really the primary advantage, especially if those relationships carry on after you finish.
Re: MIT OpenCourseWare introduces courses designed for independent learners
#15As a young autodidact struggling to fit into the traditional education world this is a welcome gift. To me a traditional diploma granting institution is now akin to a rubber stamp. You're not paying for the education, you're paying for the brand under the assumption that it will get you a job. I could rant, but I plan on doing it in a cohesive and informed blog release or something at a later date. MIT diffuses my cy…
Well, by attending a traditional institution you're really paying firstly for experts to take partial responsibility for your learning, enough to stake some of their reputation on it, and secondly for entrance to a club of peers of similar ability to learn with. With more and more material available online, I can see how taking full responsibility for your own learning is less daunting than it once was. I'm still cur…
You could give pre-tests to people and organize them into "classes" which they will stay with for four years... along with ways of sharing personal info with each other (Facebook friends perhaps)... with a once-a-year in-person meetup weekend.
Re: MIT OpenCourseWare introduces courses designed for independent learners
#16Great to see that MIT are addressing the most important problem with OCW: organizing the knowledge intelligibly. I'm currently having fun with their introduction to programming that uses Python: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-comput... . (Get the lectures on iTunes U.) Granted, I don't know if that's the best gateway drug to programming, but it has the irrefutable advantage of assignments that…
Surprised that MIT TAs haven't setup online sites where you can do the assignments for a fee.
There's a business model for you!
Re: MIT OpenCourseWare introduces courses designed for independent learners
#17As a young autodidact struggling to fit into the traditional education world this is a welcome gift. To me a traditional diploma granting institution is now akin to a rubber stamp. You're not paying for the education, you're paying for the brand under the assumption that it will get you a job. I could rant, but I plan on doing it in a cohesive and informed blog release or something at a later date. MIT diffuses my cy…
Knowledge, interaction, communities, infrastructure, and facilities are all important.
Knowledge is a commodity, but that's been true since Gutenberg. It's just a little more true now. Unis could have mailed out videos of lectures in the past, for a relatively small fee.
Interaction and communities are important. I'm guessing that online 1:1 interaction is a lot weaker (though Skype could help a bit) because it's so slow. Online communities are better, as 1:N interactions can be more powerful. The question is, how important was one on one time with your lecturer? I'm guessing it wasn't a big part of your university time, unless you were doing a high level course. Too many students to lecturers.
Infrastructure and facilities (especially labs) ... except for online journal subscriptions these are getting pretty weak these days anyway. Old-timers love to gas on about the time they nearly blew up the chem lab, but I've never been allowed near the sort of things they were able to do. For some reason. People doing a big research project (on something that isn't just computational or theoretical) get a bit more play, but only on one machine.
In short, budget cuts and commercialization have killed most of what most universities have to offer anyway.
Re: MIT OpenCourseWare introduces courses designed for independent learners
#18As a young autodidact struggling to fit into the traditional education world this is a welcome gift. To me a traditional diploma granting institution is now akin to a rubber stamp. You're not paying for the education, you're paying for the brand under the assumption that it will get you a job. I could rant, but I plan on doing it in a cohesive and informed blog release or something at a later date. MIT diffuses my cy…
Well, by attending a traditional institution you're really paying firstly for experts to take partial responsibility for your learning, enough to stake some of their reputation on it, and secondly for entrance to a club of peers of similar ability to learn with. With more and more material available online, I can see how taking full responsibility for your own learning is less daunting than it once was. I'm still cur…
There is a site http://openstudy.com/ where you can get into contact with other people taking the courses at OCW.
I wanted to work through the 18.06 calculus course anyway, so having that with enhanced material is great news to me.
Re: MIT OpenCourseWare introduces courses designed for independent learners
#19As a young autodidact struggling to fit into the traditional education world this is a welcome gift. To me a traditional diploma granting institution is now akin to a rubber stamp. You're not paying for the education, you're paying for the brand under the assumption that it will get you a job. I could rant, but I plan on doing it in a cohesive and informed blog release or something at a later date. MIT diffuses my cy…
I'm a fellow autodidact, have been for six years - pursuing my own liberal curriculum and technical specializations. I'd be interested in having a chat over email about your curriculum and the other things I don't get to talk about with other people because I don't have any kin on the same path! (you're the first I've found that also openly referred to themselves as an autodidact!)
ixmatus at [google's mail]
Re: MIT OpenCourseWare introduces courses designed for independent learners
#20As a young autodidact struggling to fit into the traditional education world this is a welcome gift. To me a traditional diploma granting institution is now akin to a rubber stamp. You're not paying for the education, you're paying for the brand under the assumption that it will get you a job. I could rant, but I plan on doing it in a cohesive and informed blog release or something at a later date. MIT diffuses my cy…
Knowledge, interaction, communities, infrastructure, and facilities are all important. Knowledge is a commodity, but that's been true since Gutenberg. It's just a little more true now. Unis could have mailed out videos of lectures in the past, for a relatively small fee. Interaction and communities are important. I'm guessing that online 1:1 interaction is a lot weaker (though Skype could help a bit) because it's so…
I'll try to simplify that. A good school should have:
mentors, peers, information, infrastructure.
Mentors - Intelligent people who guide you. Peers - Friends and community to fulfill all kinds of human needs. Information - The data that you must put into your head and the process designed to get it there. Infrastructure - Equipment, tools, software, etc. Things you wouldn't have easy access to on your own.
I didn't get much one on one time with lecturers, and I'm an ambitious fool. I approached many, but I always felt like they were waiting for me to leave. I wasn't allowed to do anything in the labs except rush through some simple prewritten task. My peer group was great, and I do think that is one benefit of schools like this. They attract plenty of intelligent innocent young-ens and put them all in one place.
I would love to be a part of an online education community, I've actually just gotten really excited about that. Ideas brewing!