Archive for 'Education'
3 Quick Tips on Becoming a Successful Learner
Posted on 10. Sep, 2009 by Koichi.
I found this image in a great blog post that I was reading, and it really struck a chord. How about you? You certainly aren’t one of the 99%, right?
In all before-and-after success stories, there’s one thing that they didn’t tell you about: perseverance. Every one of these people had to work hard to be successful, and even though they make it look easy, it wasn’t! Nothing is as easy as we want it to be, but in the end, if you try hard and take the leap you will make it. Then you will be the one to make it look simple. Today, let’s look at three things you can do to increase your learning potential and be one of these success stories. (more…)
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What is the Future of Teaching?
Posted on 01. Sep, 2009 by jon.
Great article from Josh Catone in Mashable yesterday entitled What is the Future of Teaching? I posted a follow-up in the comments and wanted to share. Here it is. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts in the comments!
Great article Josh. I’ve spent *tons* of time thinking about this over the last decade. Here’s my quick take:
#1 – Online vs traditional learning can be viewed across three vectors: Cost, convenience and quality.
There is little doubt that its cheaper to run classes online (no facilities costs, less personnel required, etc.). There is also little doubt that online classes are more convenient. You can take them from home, office, etc. and likely have a more flexible schedule than traditional classes offer.
However, the big question is around quality. I’d offer (and this is coming from the CEO of a company that specializes in online classes) that on quality alone traditional classes are still better. But what’s interesting is that the gap is narrowing quickly. It’s not at all unrealistic to envision a future in which the online class is significantly more engaging and effective than its offline equivalent. If that happens then guess what? Game over for the traditional class model (after all, why would you choose something that is more costly, less convenient and lower quality?).
#2 – I do disagree with the notion that the price of education is going to zero.
I believe in The Grand Unified Theory of the Economics of Free (I think that’s the right title…it’s a TechDirt post from back in the day) which states while abundant resources will trend towards zero (their marginal cost), the spreading of those very same resources will drive up the prices for scarce resources. In music, a band gives away MP3s (abundant resource) and makes more money from concert tickets. MIT gives away OCW material but more people hear about MIT (especially in developing countries) which leads to more demand for MIT degrees.
The abundant resources (e.g., textbooks, audio/video recordings of lectures, etc.) will tend towards free. That makes total sense. What will not tend towards free will be things like the value of a scarce degree (Ivy League degrees are likely to become valuable not less), a teacher’s time or the attention of the students. To say that education will be free assumes that the marginal costs of those things are zero which is almost certainly not true. Sure you’ll always have people who might volunteer to teach a free class (just like a band might play a benefit concert for free) but that doesn’t mean this will happen at scale anymore than any other industry can expect to draw talented people in if they aren’t being paid.
#3 – Flat out, we need better tools.
And to get better tools we need more innovation and investment. While education is a huge industry ($2 trillion by many estimates) I think it’s safe to say that social gaming has received more investment in recent years despite being a much (much!) smaller industry. The problem is that while it’s easy to look at a social game and figure out how to squeeze out some short-term cash it is much (much!) harder to look at a big industry with huge structural problems and figure out how to improve it. And improving it likely will take a lot of time and patience. It won’t be a “Build one thing in year 0. Have billion dollar company in year 3.” scenario.
But there are a lot of great people trying. Check out places like 2tor, Academic Earth, Cramster, Grockit, Knewton, LiveMocha, PrepMe, School of Everything, Smart.fm, TeachStreet, Tutor.com, Tutorvista and a whole host of others that I’m sure I’m forgetting to see what I’m talking about.
Oh, and of course us. :) (http://www.edufire.com)
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Take eduFire Classes on Apple’s new Tablet
Posted on 13. Aug, 2009 by Koichi.
Here at eduFire, every single one of us (except for a couple of traitorous interns) are Apple lovers. Everywhere you look you’ll see Apple products. iPhones, Macbook Pros, Mac Minis, and more. Now, for the first time ever, a brand spankin’ new Apple tablet… well, in our poorly photoshopped dreams, anyways. But you knew that right after looking at the picture, right? (more…)
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Top 10 Learning Resources for the Aspiring Esperantist
Posted on 29. Jul, 2009 by Scott.
In case you haven’t heard of Esperanto, I recommend checking it out. For a quick introduction, know that Esperanto is a constructed language that is easy to learn, fascinating, and meant for international communication. It is over 100 years old, and has a thriving culture to this day. However, I am not here to convince you to learn Esperanto. Katherine Garcia, one of eduFire’s members, has already done a good job of that. I am here to give you some fantastic resources for assisting you in your studies. (more…)
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Top 10 Psychology Blogs on the Web
Posted on 26. Jul, 2009 by robyn.
Psychology is powerfully linked to education; without research in neuroscience, speech pathology, learning, cognition, and much more, we would never be able to advance and improve teaching. Besides being useful, psychology is extremely interesting and can tell you a lot about how you learn and why you think the way you do. Sadly, there aren’t too many psychology courses on eduFire, though that will hopefully change in the near future! In the meantime, here are ten blogs about various fields within psychology. All of them provide great ways to learn more about the subject (the links and articles are REALLY interesting) and see how it relates to important social issues like bettering education or special needs learning.
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7 Free Online Resources for Homeschool Language Learning
Posted on 21. Jul, 2009 by Koichi.
Of course, we think eduFire (not to mention SuperPass!) is an absolutely incredible way for any homeschooler to learn a language or new skill, but we can’t always go and toot our own horn when there’s so many others that do such a good job as well. Here is a list of seven free resources (besides us) that home schoolers can use to study a language quickly and effectively. With the web, using software on your computer is old. These resources are often better, more effective, and free! (more…)
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Using #teach-me on Twitter for Demand Driven Teaching
Posted on 30. Mar, 2009 by Koichi.
I came across this Tweet by Kareem (yep, one of the eduFire founders!) the other day. I thought it was pretty neat, but didn’t realize the potential of it until we talked about it a little. Twitter could be the home of a small revolution! We’re talking about “Demand Driven Teaching,” here.
So, say you want to learn something new, but have no idea where to find that Esperanto teacher of your dreams. With Twitter gaining more and more popularity, there’s bound to be someone there that knows and is willing to teach you Esperanto (and even get paid for it). Here’s what you’d do, if you were a student.
Students
Say there’s something you want to learn. You would fire up your Twitter account and type out a message. Perhaps you want to learn Spanish. You would type in something like “I need to know how to buy things in Spanish for my trip to Spain next month,” then end it with the hashtags #teach-me #edufire. This will show that you want a Spanish teacher, and you want to learn it on eduFire. You will then show up in Twitter’s Search function when you look for #teach-me.
Teachers
Of course, if you’re a teacher, you can always participate in learning something new as well, but you’re probably in it to find some students! The demand is already there, which is good for you, and people are making themselves easy to find. That’s great! All you would do is do a search on Twitter for #teach-me, and then maybe add what you teach, if you want to get more specific. For example, if you typed in #teach-me spanish, you’d find all the people that mentioned #teach-me and Spanish in their Tweets. There aren’t any right now, but hopefully that’s something we can change in the coming months! I would recommend getting a Twitter application like Tweetdeck to help organize your searches and get notified of changes faster!
Use #teach-me and #edufire to Win Prizes!
In April, we’ll be giving out eduFire t-shirts and free class coupons to students who use #teach-me and #edufire in their tweets. We’ll choose a couple of random tweets, as well as a couple of tweets we just really really like. Of course, all the tweets have to be something you actually want to learn (or be a tweet “spreading the word”), otherwise it’s missing the point, so no spamming the hashtag just for the heck of it! That’s cheating!
We look forward to seeing this tweet in action! I think there’s a lot of potential here – and a lot of students and teachers will be able to find each other when this thing takes off. We definitely need your help to spread the word, or to use this hashtag yourself! Thank you everyone for your support!
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What if…
Posted on 19. Mar, 2009 by jon.
OK, I’m about to go a little out there. But a thought occurred to me as I was checking out the site tonight and seeing all sort of cool things happening ranging from lots of people Twittering about us to us being on the verge of hitting 30,000 posts in the forums to new classes in all sorts of amazing subjects ranging from social investing to holistic nutrition. It pretty much hit me straight between the eyes.
What if that moment we have all been waiting for had arrived?
Bear with me here for a minute. If you’re reading this blog it’s probably because you actually give a damn. You care about education. Maybe your education. Maybe education in general. Maybe education for people in places who weren’t quite as blessed as we are.
And you’re probably here because you think that education can be better. That you shouldn’t have to suffer for a mediocre education at a price that increases at an ever-increasing rate (health care is the only thing that has increased in price at a faster pace than tuition over the last 20 years). That no one should for that matter. That high school drop-out rates that exceed 50% in some cities in the U.S. are a national travesty. And that our inability to re-train workers being displaced by shrinking industries shouldn’t have to be an international catastrophe.
Like a lot of other people you’re waiting for a change. So let me suggest something radical. What if that moment has arrived?
Two weeks ago I was out in New York City to attend Hacking Education, an amazing event put on by Union Square Ventures, a top-tier VC behind such success stories as Etsy and Twitter. The guest list ranged from people who are about as distinguished as they come to 25 year olds with the best resume on the planet. And they all came together to discuss one thing: How to revolutionize education.
Sitting in that room that day, listening to the ideas (and contributing a few of my own!), I couldn’t help but feeling that maybe this is it. Maybe the change that people have been talking about for some long is actually happening. And certainly not at all just at a place like eduFire. But with other amazing edge startups like TeachStreet, Knewton, Smart.fm and LiveMocha.
And so while the whole world seems like it’s off it’s rocker with talks of bailout and corporate greed maybe there’s something else going on here. Something more powerful than any of us yet have realized. An opportunity to create a true system of Global Intelligence. A chance to turn teachers into rockstars.
That’s a big frickin’ opportunity. Massive. And with big opportunities come big responsibilities. Especially in times like this it’s easy to throw in the towel. To see another depressing piece of news and just say “Screw it.” Or not. Or instead to realize that we can pick ourselves up, dust ourselves and go out and build amazing stuff that will change the planet.
That’s what we try to do every day here at eduFire. Build something that will help someone. Maybe a student who is look for some extra help in an important subject. Maybe a teacher trying to earn a decent living doing what they’re most passionate about.
And we’d love to have you help us out. Because ultimately at the end of the day it’s not about us as defined by the people on our team. It’s about *us*. What we’re all building together and the legacy we’ll leave to the generations that will come after us. By supporting the platforms that are trying to change things and supporting each other you are playing a role in being a part of this change.
So I’ll leave you with a few action items before your day is done. With each one of these that you do you’re playing a role in being a part of the change:
Know someone who is studying for the GMAT? Tell them about Grockit. It’s a ridiculously cool multi-player game that helps you study for the GMAT alongside other students.
Know someone who does local (face-to-face) teaching? Have them sign up on Teachstreet (if they’re in the US) or on School of Everything (if they’re in Europe). You’ll be doing them a big favor!
Know someone who is learning a language? Tell them about Smart.fm and LiveMocha, two of the most butt-kickingest language learning sites out there.
Last but not least we’d of course love your help too. :) We’ve put together a special Spread the Word page on edufire that you will give you a bunch of ways you can help us out. We’ve also added new “Post to Twitter” and “Post to Facebook” links on all of our Classes (more details here). As I mentioned before, every little bit helps.
I’ll close by saying that I’m really, really excited to look back on this moment in 5 or 10 years and say “Wow, that was it. That was when it all started.” The collective moment that we’re sharing, one infused with hope and optimism for a future that doesn’t exist but is brighter than any we’ve ever envisioned before. That moment is perhaps the one we’ve been waiting for.
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
-Lyrics from “Blackbird” by The Beatles
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The first live video class from 30,000 feet?
Posted on 08. Mar, 2009 by jon.
Today I took Marco’s awesome class on Memory/Mneomics. Like all of the eduFire classes I’ve taken so far I really enjoyed it and learned a lot. However there was something different about this class…I was taking it from 30,000 feet. Courtesy of the fine folks at Virgin America (I highly recommend flying them whenever you can!) and the awesomeness of Gogo Inflight Internet I was taking the class from onboard the plane exactly the same as if I were sitting at home.
And then a thought occurred to me…am I the first person to take a live video class from a commercial airplane??!!
Wi-fi is just being made available on flights (Virgin just started a few months ago) and live video learning is pretty brand new as well. Hmmm, this might have been a historic event! :)
Regardless, it was pretty amazing and I thought I should capture the moment for posterity so I’ve included a short snippet of the video below. It’s not much to watch but you can see people going up and down the aisle. I didn’t capture the sound properly (all you hear is jet noise and me typing on the keyboard) but that’s me you see live with Marco on video and I could hear him fine the whole class. I could have even participated via audio if I had really wanted to annoy my seatmates. ;)
Today was just another one of a lot of “Anything is possible.” moments I’ve been experiencing lately. If we can participate in live video classes while on a cross-country flight at 30,000 feet then what can’t we do? :)
(P.S. The other fun part was that I encoded the video using HeyWatch, uploaded the video to YouTube and wrote and posted this all while still in the air. I heart the Internet! :))
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Following the Brilliant Minds Behind Hacking Education
Posted on 06. Mar, 2009 by Koichi.
An incredible event went down in New York today: the “Hacking Education Conference.” Jon was there, and even though I wasn’t, I followed it on Twitter and was able to contribute a bit from across the country. Everyone at the conference (or tweeting about it) used the hashtag #hackedu to keep track. All day, I’ve been compiling a list of all the contributors to the #hackedu conversation and wanted to share them here with you, so even after the conference is over, you can continue to see what these educational geniuses are up to. Oh, and of course, with every Twitter-related article, a shameless plug: follow us over at @edufire. (more…)
