I’m Attending MIT, Stanford & Harvard • Hacker News Board

Re: I’m Attending MIT, Stanford & Harvard

#31

Post by yters » Fri, Jan 30, 2009, 3:12 AM UTC

netcan wrote: post #26

yters wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Education is about learning how to learn. You can either learn by yourself or with others. Learning with others is more effective and enjoyable, which is why sites like HN exist. Learning to learn with others is something you get from going to university, i.e. interaction and struggling for ideas.

I don't disagree that this (the recent availability of online lectures) is not a mirror replacement for uni. It's also not entirely new. The possibility of getting a uni equivalent education without enrolling has always existed (at least partially). Books, uni Libraries. Many places will let you sit in on virtually all classes without enrolling. But it has always remained in the sidelines. But... Pointing to any deve…

Agreed. Just nitpicking over the definition of education as gaining knowledge and skills, thus uni not conferring any benefit.

Re: I’m Attending MIT, Stanford & Harvard

#32

Post by sanj » Fri, Jan 30, 2009, 3:39 AM UTC

Every once in a while I have a slight pang of "well, jeez, I spent $120k and 10 years doing this! And now it's free?"

It's like that moment when you buy a computer and its successor comes out the next week.

With a few exceptions, I barely remember the lectures. At times it feels like I barely remembered what I learned! But I sure do remember how to learn.

Re: I’m Attending MIT, Stanford & Harvard

#33

Post by mike463 » Fri, Jan 30, 2009, 4:01 AM UTC

whacked_new wrote: post #5

Academicearth is a non-profit startup?

Yeah, I thought the universities providing their courseware explicitly prohibited commercial use of their material.

Re: I’m Attending MIT, Stanford & Harvard

#34

Post by mike463 » Fri, Jan 30, 2009, 4:04 AM UTC

whacked_new wrote: post #5

Academicearth is a non-profit startup?

from MIT opencourseware FAQ:

# Commercialization is prohibited. Users may not directly sell or profit from OCW materials or from works derived from OCW materials.

Re: I’m Attending MIT, Stanford & Harvard

#35

Post by netcan » Fri, Jan 30, 2009, 6:09 AM UTC

yters wrote: post #31

netcan wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't disagree that this (the recent availability of online lectures) is not a mirror replacement for uni. It's also not entirely new. The possibility of getting a uni equivalent education without enrolling has always existed (at least partially). Books, uni Libraries. Many places will let you sit in on virtually all classes without enrolling. But it has always remained in the sidelines. But... Pointing to any deve…

Agreed. Just nitpicking over the definition of education as gaining knowledge and skills, thus uni not conferring any benefit.

If we're going to be nitpicky isn't 'learning to learn' a skill?

:)

Re: I’m Attending MIT, Stanford & Harvard

#36

Post by endtime » Fri, Jan 30, 2009, 6:16 AM UTC

ktharavaad wrote: post #12

To get the most out of these lectures, you really have to do all the problem sets and carefully read all the notes and material. Simply just watching the lectures is not enough unless you just want a very rough overview of the topic. It will be really great if someone made a forum/website where people could interact with each other about a particular course and ask questions and have discussions regarding certain top…

Not sure about MIT and Harvard, but for Stanford CS courses, if you go to csXXX.stanford.edu you'll typically get the class page, including slides, problem sets, programming assignments etc. Ex. http://cs221.stanford.edu.

Obviously, I agree with you. In fact, I'd go a step further and say that watching the lectures without doing the problems/coding gets you significantly less than halfway.

Re: I’m Attending MIT, Stanford & Harvard

#37

Post by jpcx01 » Fri, Jan 30, 2009, 6:25 AM UTC

jdrock wrote: post #19

..but not Carnegie Mellon? Oh well, I guess we can't all be the best. ;)

Does CMU offer any lectures online?

Re: I’m Attending MIT, Stanford & Harvard

#38

Post by jpcx01 » Fri, Jan 30, 2009, 6:26 AM UTC

aneesh wrote: post #16

dreish wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only there were some way for people around the world to communicate with each other as they watched these lectures ... Not trying to be snarky. I just wonder whether there's an opportunity there.

Omnisio-style comments overlayed on the video itself would be a start, especially if you could control whose comments were displayed.

Only if you could filter them somehow. Most omnisio comments weren't serious. Half of the lecture comments would be idiots making fun of the instructors hair.

Re: I’m Attending MIT, Stanford & Harvard

#39

Post by kaens » Fri, Jan 30, 2009, 7:11 AM UTC

netcan wrote: post #14

kaiser wrote: post #3

Although it is great to have lectures, slides etc. online (check also the Open Course Ware initiative from MIT), it is still a difference if you are just listening to the lectures or if you can really interact with the people attending. Education is more about interaction and struggling for ideas than it is about listening to lectures. Still great complimentary resources ... (also for lecturers).

>Education is more about interaction and struggling for ideas than it is about listening to lectures. I disagree. Education is about acquiring skills & knowledge. Lectures, interactions, books, tutors, classmates.. these are the way education is delivered. Maybe university experience is "more about interaction and struggling for ideas than it is about listening to lectures," but saying that about education as a whole…

I semi-agree.

I have been an autodidact all of my life, and poor (and occasionally homeless) most of my adult life. I'm still young.

I've been learning partially via online video lectures (specifically MIT's OCW) and course materials since they first started popping up a few years ago, and I've learned a great deal - however, I feel that I would have learned much more if I was in a situation where I was always very close to being able to interact with other people learning the same stuff in person. Not to mention that there are other benefits.

In fact, I'll probably be pursuing college after completing my next gig, which is 4-5 months down the road - mainly because the type of stuff that I'm very interested in (like friendly AI and cognitive science) are only really moving in colleges - I'd be put directly in contact with more people with more interests doing more relevant stuff once I sludged past the undergrad part.

It's not that I can't keep learning and applying my knowledge on my own, it's that I think I may have hit a point where it's just not as efficient (for my purposes) anymore.

Re: I’m Attending MIT, Stanford & Harvard

#40

Post by kaens » Fri, Jan 30, 2009, 7:12 AM UTC

endtime wrote: post #36

ktharavaad wrote: post #12

To get the most out of these lectures, you really have to do all the problem sets and carefully read all the notes and material. Simply just watching the lectures is not enough unless you just want a very rough overview of the topic. It will be really great if someone made a forum/website where people could interact with each other about a particular course and ask questions and have discussions regarding certain top…

Not sure about MIT and Harvard, but for Stanford CS courses, if you go to csXXX.stanford.edu you'll typically get the class page, including slides, problem sets, programming assignments etc. Ex. http://cs221.stanford.edu . Obviously, I agree with you. In fact, I'd go a step further and say that watching the lectures without doing the problems/coding gets you significantly less than halfway.

MIT has a whole directory of openly available stuff at http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/courses/courses/index.htm