DailyDirt: The Coming Education Revolution

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Providing digitally-distributed educations isn't as scalable as it might seem. Some topics, like math, might be a bit easier to teach with YouTube-esque videos, but some subjects may need a bit more of a human touch. Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are still in the development phase, so they may one day overtake traditional classes (but not right now..). Here are a few online courses to keep an eye on to see if they rate better than "needs improvement" someday.

• MIT is starting to offer a big data class online with a MOOC aimed at working professionals (that'll be $495 for four weeks of classes, please). MIT has provided free online course materials for years, but this course is part of the first set of Online X classes. [url]
• Minerva is a "startup" university that aims to offer a quality education for less than $20,000 per year. Minerva aspires to have admission standards that are "higher than current Ivy League levels" and focuses on teaching skills rather than traditional academic subjects. [url]
• Udacity's Sebastian Thrun knows that developing a MOOC ain't easy, admitting "We have a lousy product." Experiments with online classes apparently are teaching some folks what doesn't work when it comes to teaching. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: big data, college, education, massively open online course, minerva, mit, mooc, online classes, sebastian thrun, students, teaching, udacity, university

More Civil Liberties Concerns Over Jailed Korean Blogger

from the freedom-of-speech dept

We've covered the story of the South Korean blogger who went by the name Minerva, and who was arrested for "spreading false rumors." The whole episode seemed troubling to us. It seemed as though the blogger was just posting his thoughts online, and the government didn't like what he was saying. Now even more information is coming to light, including reports that what he said (about the Korean gov't telling banks not to buy US dollars) wasn't quite as false as the government claimed. Apparently it wasn't an official order -- but banks were urged to avoid dollars. This has plenty of people up in arms over what seems like a clear politically motivated arrest of a guy for telling the truth that the government didn't want people to know about, rather than any sort of "false information."

Filed Under: blogger, forecasts, free speech, minerva, predictions, south korea, spreading harmful information

Lesson From Jailed South Korean Blogger: Don't Be Too Good With Your Predictions

from the it'll-come-back-to-bite-you dept

There's been a fascinating story coming out of Korea over the past few months, concerning the (formerly) anonymous online commentator who went by the name Minerva. He accurately forecasted some of the early days of the financial collapse last fall, and suddenly the press talked him up and everyone wanted to know who he was. Then he claimed that the Korean government had told companies to stop buying US dollars -- forcing the government to put out a statement denying this was true. Then, following a few weeks of searching, he was arrested for spreading false information and (a week later) his identity was revealed (along with a background that shows he wasn't particularly well connected or knowledgeable -- he likely made some lucky guesses).

But, it does raise questions about the fine line between making predictions and spreading false information. Because he had been so accurate with his earlier predictions, many started to assume that he was well-connected, and any future predictions he made would also be equally accurate. It seems that, once again, the old saw that "past results is no guarantee of future performance" was ignored. Now, there may be a difference in terms of how the information was presented -- in terms of whether he specifically claimed to know for certain that the Korean government had done what he said, as opposed to just predicting that it was about to happen -- but it seems like the line between a prediction and "spreading false information" gets pretty thin once everyone thinks you know what's going on better than anyone else.

Filed Under: blogger, forecasts, free speech, minerva, predictions, south korea, spreading harmful information