A timely cover story in this week's Chronicle of Higher Education, "A Boom Time for Education Start-Ups". It suggests reasons both why the start-ups are happening, and why people are investing in them: <http://chronicle.com/article/A-Boom-Time-for-Education/131229/>
I think it is open access, but if you have a problem getting it to you, I can cut and paste. Eric On Thu, Mar 22, 2012 12:39 PM, Paul Kruchoski <[email protected]> wrote: > > >Hi Owen, >> > >>I'm actually writing a short book about this with a colleague in DC who works in the technology space. I think there are a few reasons why this is happening now: >> > >>1) Universities have become so expensive, and student debt is so incredibly high. >>2) There is an increasing recognition in Computer Science and a number of other fields that formal education is far less important than professional skills. This is translating into companies changing their hiring criteria to replace degrees with skills. The student market is adapting. >>3) There is a growing market for learning and education, period. University enrollment is growing incredibly fast (despite the increasing costs), and it shows no signs of slowing down. >>4) There is also a policy push in DC for Open Educational Resources. Dept of Education is investing $2 billion over four years in OERs produced by community colleges and other technical institutions. This funding is specifically aimed at skills (rather than liberal arts) and vocational education. > > >> > >>Those are the biggest reasons, in my mind -- a real demand for new forms of education. >> > >>Paul >> > >>On 22 March 2012 00:23, Owen Densmore <<#>> wrote: > > >>Well, yet ANOTHER very interesting education stunt: ><http://www.youtube.com/tededucation> > > > >>TED is introducing life long learning sessions. >> > >>Lets see, Kahn, Stanford/Coursera, SolveForX, Udacity, MITx, ... now TED-ED! .. and I'm sure I'm missing others ... and I'm not including the oldies but goodies like OpenCourseware and iTunesU which are not interactive. > > > >> > >>Question: Why is this happening and why now? Anyone got some inside scoop? >> > >>It certainly is viral .. I'm caught up in Scott Page's Model Thinking and Tim Roughgarden's Algorithms class now, and Andrew Ng's Machine Learning last semester, and loving all of them. They do take a lot of time and effort, so its not just "bright shiny toys" .. its the real thing. > > > >> > >>But I have absolutely NO idea why this "punctuated equilibrium", or "tipping point" is happening just now. Maybe there are some weird VC's lurking under this all? Let me know what you think. > > > >> > >> -- Owen > >============================================================ > >FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > >Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > >lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at <http://www.friam.org> > > > > > >> >-- >Paul Kruchoski>@Kruchoski | <> | <http://doodle.com/kruchoski> > > > > > > ============================================================ >FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > Eric Charles Professional Student and Assistant Professor of Psychology Penn State University Altoona, PA 16601
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
