Tuesday, July 3, 2012

The 100,000 Person Classroom


Last fall, I took an online class in Artificial Intelligence from my colleage Peter Norvig and Sebastian Thrun.    It turned out that I was one of over 150,000 students who signed up for that class.  It was the beginning of what has now become Udacity.  In this short video, Peter Norvig talks briefly about the experience of teaching 100,000 students.

We talk about this a lot here at Digital Diner.  I think this is a very exciting time for education.  We are in the midst of a significant change.  Among other things, we a separating the concept of education from what happens to kids in school.  Sure, there is concentrated learning going on in school, but as education resources become more widely available, I think we'll find that what once was the domain of matriculated students is now open to everyone everywhere who is willing to put in the time and effort to learn.  Education can truly become a life long process instead of something that you look forward to finishing so that you can get into the real world.
If you have the time and interest, you may want to watch the following 45 minute video of a Google+ Hangout with Peter Norvig, Sebastian Thrun and Salman Khan.


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