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Khan Academy Founder Proposes a New Type of College

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Re: Khan Academy Founder Proposes a New Type of College

#31

Post by danielharan »

sridhar_vembu wrote: post #19

In a chapter titled “What College Could Be Like,” Mr. Khan conjures an image of a new campus in Silicon Valley where students would spend their days working on internships and projects with mentors, and would continue their education with self-paced learning similar to that of Khan Academy. The students would attend ungraded seminars at night on art and literature, and the faculty would consist of professionals the s…

I am currently volunteer teaching in a high school and found a few bright ones that are eager to learn. What's the best way for them to apply?

Re: Khan Academy Founder Proposes a New Type of College

#32

Post by saraid216 »

ender7 wrote: post #11

Here is the crux of the matter: In the book, Mr. Khan also advocates for a separation of universities’ teaching and credentialing roles, arguing that if students could take internationally recognized assessments to prove themselves, the playing field would be leveled between students pursuing different forms of higher education. Removing our heavy reliance on higher ed credentialling seems central to his idea, and ye…

There are legitimate ways of doing standardized testing. I suspect the professions of engineering and law can be useful guideposts. There have been discussions before on how engineering as a whole is like or unlike software engineering... I'll leave that bone of contention alone.

But I don't think Khan is suggesting that every profession be so assessed: just that, if an assessment is merited, just put it out there as available rather than required.

Re: Khan Academy Founder Proposes a New Type of College

#34

Post by saraid216 »

michaelochurch wrote: post #17

Education intersects with two problem areas that have historically been correlated: 1. Knowledge sharing. Books no longer take three months of a person's time to copy, but 2. "Social". This includes credentialing, social networking, and creation of an environment (in college, a mostly parentally funded and artificial one) conducive to rapid learning. The second of these is much harder, because people still believe th…

At the university level, there is also academic freedom and research.

Re: Khan Academy Founder Proposes a New Type of College

#35

Post by wisty »

ender7 wrote: post #11

Here is the crux of the matter: In the book, Mr. Khan also advocates for a separation of universities’ teaching and credentialing roles, arguing that if students could take internationally recognized assessments to prove themselves, the playing field would be leveled between students pursuing different forms of higher education. Removing our heavy reliance on higher ed credentialling seems central to his idea, and ye…

> Sadly, many professions are not well-evaluated by standardized testing.

1) This isn't really true. Bar exams, and medical and accounting equivalents do quite well.

2) It's just as arguable that many professions are not well-evaluated by university accreditation.

Re: Khan Academy Founder Proposes a New Type of College

#36

Post by walexander »

ender7 wrote: post #11

Here is the crux of the matter: In the book, Mr. Khan also advocates for a separation of universities’ teaching and credentialing roles, arguing that if students could take internationally recognized assessments to prove themselves, the playing field would be leveled between students pursuing different forms of higher education. Removing our heavy reliance on higher ed credentialling seems central to his idea, and ye…

I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss certifications. Having an A+ cert at least reasonably signifies someone could format a hard drive and install ram.

These tests do not have to be on paper alone, either. Look at the CCIE from Cisco. That has an extremely difficult lab component that no amount of "teaching to the test" is going to help you overcome (which is why having one pretty much guarantees a six figure income).

Re: Khan Academy Founder Proposes a New Type of College

#37

Post by ChuckMcM »

tokenadult wrote: post #29

There are several interesting comments on this article that relate to company hiring procedures. With the help of other HN participants, I have gradually compiled references to build a FAQ file on that subject, http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4613543 which seems to be well liked by other participants here. To relate what the research says to what Salman Khan is proposing, it is a widely replicated finding all ove…

"A college or university that says to the world, "Our graduates who obtain our diplomas demonstrate their competence with work-sample tests, the results of which we list on their official academic records" would rapidly gain notice from companies with research-based hiring procedures. (And why would anyone want to work for a company with hiring procedures that are contrary to the best research?)"

This is exactly the line of reasoning that ITT Technical College takes [1] and yet few, if any, of those graduates go to work for Google or Microsoft or Apple in their engineering programs. (all companies that pride themselves on having 'enlightened' hiring practices)

What this means for the entrepreneur is that you can hire top technical talent that these other guys won't touch because that talent either graduated from a more 'trade' oriented school than an Ivy League school, or if that talent trained themselves differently (online/self taught/Etc).

[1] "At ITT Technical Institutes, we are committed to helping men and women develop skills and knowledge to pursue opportunities in many of today's promising career fields, including electronics, drafting and design, criminal justice, business, information technology, health sciences and nursing." - http://www.itt-tech.edu/

Re: Khan Academy Founder Proposes a New Type of College

#39

Post by sridhar_vembu »

danielharan wrote: post #31
sridhar_vembu wrote: post #19

In a chapter titled “What College Could Be Like,” Mr. Khan conjures an image of a new campus in Silicon Valley where students would spend their days working on internships and projects with mentors, and would continue their education with self-paced learning similar to that of Khan Academy. The students would attend ungraded seminars at night on art and literature, and the faculty would consist of professionals the s…

I am currently volunteer teaching in a high school and found a few bright ones that are eager to learn. What's the best way for them to apply?

Please send me mail svembu at google's email.

Re: Khan Academy Founder Proposes a New Type of College

#40

Post by jiggy2011 »

This sounds a lot like an apprenticeship with a book club and some arts and crafts attached.

Perhaps that is fine, it seems to me that to most people (especially parents) what is important is not so much what is taught or how it is taught but the fact that they can say they have been to a place called a "university".

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