Imagine K12 • Hacker News Board

Re: Imagine K12

#41

Post by pixcavator » Fri, Mar 18, 2011, 12:51 AM UTC

frak_your_couch wrote: post #12

ph0rque wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you heard of OERCommons ( http://www.oercommons.org/ )? They sound like what you describe.

I have not, thanks for the tip. I looked at a book or so, but didn't see an easy away to comment on individual paragraphs like in "Real World Haskell", but maybe more of the interface opens up if you log in. ANyway, thanks for the tip!

My site is a wiki similar to what you describe, http://inperc.com/wiki/index.php?title=Category:Courses. I would like to allow comments but afraid of spam. Maybe one day.

Re: Imagine K12

#42

Post by pixcavator » Fri, Mar 18, 2011, 12:54 AM UTC

yummyfajitas wrote: post #35

ghshephard wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been 15 years since I took Calculus I and II, but looking over: http://www.khanacademy.org/#Calculus Is there _anything_ in Stewart that isn't covered as well by Khan? You also get advantage of the video tutorial on the topic. I'm waiting for that point in time when we reach a tipping point and Higher Education Institutions don't just delegate everything to Khan for a lot of their topics. My Calculus Course (151…

Problem set quality is not the issue. If it were, I would donate a week or two of my time and build a problem set generator. The issue is that you need the same problem sets as the instructor. If the instructor uses Stewart and homework is graded, you get a 0 on HW. This is why you can't even go back 1 edition of the book, and why the legacy publishers print a new edition every 2 years with minimal changes beyond twe…

Int[ 1/Sqrt[3+5x^2], {x}] can't be copyrighted but a problem set that consists only of exercises as routine as this would be almost worthless. A cross referencer is a neat idea though.

Re: Imagine K12

#43

Post by mkramlich » Fri, Mar 18, 2011, 12:55 AM UTC

mkramlich wrote: post #36

prestia wrote: post #10

This is a really exciting announcement! Education is probably the most important factor in maintaining long-term competitiveness and the American system is in desperate need of improvement. That said, the hurdles in this area are overwhelming. To name a few: -Layer upon layer of bureaucracy (states, counties, districts, individual school administrators) -Teachers that are reluctant to adopt new technology -Students t…

> -Layer upon layer of bureaucracy (states, counties, districts, individual school administrators) damage. route around it > -Teachers that are reluctant to adopt new technology damage. route around it > -Students that are difficult to motivate damage. route around it i am serious

harsh. i thought i was giving wise advice.

Re: Imagine K12

#44

Post by tealtan » Fri, Mar 18, 2011, 1:52 AM UTC

shii wrote: post #13

It seems Imagine K12 will/has solved the classic chicken-and-egg problem with education startups. I've been asking on how to get traction at schools online in different communities for years when I was working on a side project in this area. It's virtually impossible to sell to school districts, and unless pioneering teachers who are savvy enough to use something like Google Apps for their classrooms and see your pro…

Makes me wonder if the same could happen with the health care / medical field.

Re: Imagine K12

#45

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Re: Imagine K12

#46

Post by ilovecomputers » Fri, Mar 18, 2011, 2:01 AM UTC

I have a naive notion of business, but does your startup idea necessarily have to be a for-profit venture?

Re: Imagine K12

#47

Post by PakG1 » Fri, Mar 18, 2011, 2:44 AM UTC

gcheong wrote: post #25

I'd really like to see a "request for startups" type post from this group.

I think better it come from the schools than from the group, no? The schools are the ones feeling the pain you're trying to solve, and it's a targeted segment where you don't have to searching for a customer. Your customer's right there, so the knowledge is right there.

Of course, there's the caveat that the customer isn't always sure of what they really need. But in this case, I'm sure they could think of some good ideas. :)

Re: Imagine K12

#48

Post by chrismanfrank » Fri, Mar 18, 2011, 2:48 AM UTC

btipling wrote: post #2

Something built around the model that Khan Academy presents would be really interesting. Videos and learn at your own time. Home work help, helping parents and students find tutors, helping with test preparation. The long summer months are also a problem for a household where both parents are working. There is a lot of opportunity to help students here. Will be exciting to see what comes of it. Good luck!

My company is tackling the tutoring component. We think with free content like the KhanAcademy, the only thing missing is personalized help when you get stuck. We're launching a summer program where K-12 students can work with tutors from Stanford via Skype. The tutor will be like a coach, though, most of the instruction will be from Khan Academy videos. What do you think? We're at IgnitionTutoring.com

Re: Imagine K12

#49

Post by chrismanfrank » Fri, Mar 18, 2011, 2:51 AM UTC

shortlived wrote: post #34

This is nice and all but the real issue lies with getting all families involved in their child's education. All of the technology in the world will not solve this problem.

Maybe that is an opportunity in itself.

Re: Imagine K12

#50

Post by scottshapiro » Fri, Mar 18, 2011, 4:01 AM UTC

This is fantastic.

But we also need a breakthrough in K-12 tech adoption.

n=1: my girlfriend is a math teacher at a better district in California. The only technology they provide her is a desktop with Windows 98.

So she uses her own mac to admin a tumblog filled with photos of assignments and answers to problems she uploads from her iphone. She uploads PDF's to google docs and 'shares with everyone'. She links to Khan academy videos since the school bans youtube and none of the district computers support flash.

Then her students use their home computers (if they have them) to consume this content. They're excited about it (most never heard of Khan before this) and it seems to be effective.

Back in the late 90's IBM installed a token-ring network at my high school. It was obsolete before they finished the project and the computers we had could barely get IE3 to load a web page.

So I hope this incubator does a lot not just to foster edu focused startups but to also get the right people in education to push for decent technology at schools.