By the way the two founders are 20 Under 20 Thiel Fellows.
Open: A tool for teachers to create and share lessons with their students
11–20 of 41 posts
Re: Open: A tool for teachers to create and share lessons with their students
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
Our tool is Open in the sense that access to it for teachers and students is free. The reason teachers and students can't sign up right now is we're in closed beta. - David, Co-Founder
How free is free? Do they submit resources that only you can own the copyright to like IMDb does? Can anyone not an official student participate allowing public education? How are you going to fund maintenance with no clear business model? I hope it doesn't discourage you!
Open is free for individual teachers to use. We will not own resources submitted to Open.
And yes, anyone can watch any lesson on the site (another reason we're named Open).
Our revenue model is based upon service we intend provide to schools.
Re: Open: A tool for teachers to create and share lessons with their students
#13Have you guys in any way been inspired by Salman Khan's (khanacademy.org) work? Perhaps a cooperation could benefit both of your organizations, and consequently the rest of the world.
Improving education is always a very laudable goal. And even though I see the value of having many parties to chose from, I think in this case a lot more can be achieved by reducing fragmentation of the available tools and sources and having potentially major players join forces.
Re: Open: A tool for teachers to create and share lessons with their students
#14I'm not sure why all of the other commenters are so negative. This looks amazing! Khan Academy for the local high school... I love it.
I wish that I could have gone to a school where I watch the lectures at home and spend the 74 minutes with the teacher working on problems.
Re: Open: A tool for teachers to create and share lessons with their students
#15Have you guys in any way been inspired by Salman Khan's (khanacademy.org) work? Perhaps a cooperation could benefit both of your organizations, and consequently the rest of the world. Improving education is always a very laudable goal. And even though I see the value of having many parties to chose from, I think in this case a lot more can be achieved by reducing fragmentation of the available tools and sources and h…
Absolutely, we share many principles with the Khan Academy in our approach to the classroom. We're just trying to solve the problem in a different way.
- David, Co-Founder, Open
Re: Open: A tool for teachers to create and share lessons with their students
#16Have you guys in any way been inspired by Salman Khan's (khanacademy.org) work? Perhaps a cooperation could benefit both of your organizations, and consequently the rest of the world. Improving education is always a very laudable goal. And even though I see the value of having many parties to chose from, I think in this case a lot more can be achieved by reducing fragmentation of the available tools and sources and h…
I don't get the sense from the Khan literature that they intend for "normal" teachers to record their own lessons. I could be mistaken?
Re: Open: A tool for teachers to create and share lessons with their students
#17Have you guys in any way been inspired by Salman Khan's (khanacademy.org) work? Perhaps a cooperation could benefit both of your organizations, and consequently the rest of the world. Improving education is always a very laudable goal. And even though I see the value of having many parties to chose from, I think in this case a lot more can be achieved by reducing fragmentation of the available tools and sources and h…
I don't get the sense from the Khan literature that they intend for "normal" teachers to record their own lessons. I could be mistaken?
It's not portrayed in that way, no. Khan Academy seeks dedicated movie makers.
Letting the teacher do it instead can have its benefits. Certainly when it comes to teaching a customized or niche curriculum that simply isn't available on a place like khanacademy.org.
However, I do think that having videos recorded by people who excel at that kind of stuff (like Salman himself) also makes a lot of sense. A good voice and a clear way of explaining potentially difficult subjects can not easily be done by everyone.
One would say that a teacher should be able to do it, but talking to a computer screen is a lot different than talking to a classroom. And from my own experiences I know for a fact that not nearly all of them have the charm and capacity to convey a subject in an understandable and inspiring manner.
Re: Open: A tool for teachers to create and share lessons with their students
#18horrible name. assuming you do get enough traction with it otherwise, it's going to cause nothing but confusion when talking about. "opens" you to other naming problems in the future if you try to expand the brand to other products Example: the Open Gradebook -- is it open, or is it owned by the Open company -- do you prosecute everyone other website or software with Open in the name? can of worms is "opened". :)
my two cents
Re: Open: A tool for teachers to create and share lessons with their students
#19This is a cool idea, in principle.
I am generally unconvinced - and have been for a long time - of the efficiency of video lectures. When I was homeschooled, the video-curriculum students (Abeka Video) never seemed to do quite as well as the ones with live instructors.
I am, however, quite enthused about the idea of educational startups, and I certainly hope to be proved utterly wrong!
Re: Open: A tool for teachers to create and share lessons with their students
#20horrible name. assuming you do get enough traction with it otherwise, it's going to cause nothing but confusion when talking about. "opens" you to other naming problems in the future if you try to expand the brand to other products Example: the Open Gradebook -- is it open, or is it owned by the Open company -- do you prosecute everyone other website or software with Open in the name? can of worms is "opened". :) my…
I agree Open is too generic. Open should serve as a qualifier for a name that is more describing of what the software does.