By Sean Scarpiello
In the recent article, “Udacity: A New Type of Education,” there was a lot of discussion on both the pros and cons of this new type of online education. Online education is quickly rising in popularity for its low cost. This means more and more education professionals are entering this field... As the head of the Udacity project, Sebastian Thrun, is beginning to enroll more students into more classes, he is addressing the problems of Udacity and finding new and innovative ways to fix them.
The first major problem Thrun is fixing is Udacity’s ability to give credit to students who pass the class. At the moment, students can take this college level class, complete all of the work and assignment, yet not receive any credit for all of their hard work. Since Udacity is not technically an accredited university, at the moment, degrees for classes cannot be given to students. Udacity is fixing this flaw by acting almost like a recruiting agency for companies to help their students get jobs. For example, if a company is in need of an employee with certain credentials, Udacity will give the company a list of students in the area who are qualified in certain fields and have passed Udacity’s classes. This is a great way to solve the accreditation problem because students are taking the Udacity classes to improve their knowledge at the workplace and to get better jobs in general.
One other problem that Udacity is fixing in their future classes is the social aspects of learning. Large class sizes, especially large class sizes online, can lead to the lack of student to student and student to teacher interaction. This needs to be addressed because students can learn a lot by asking other students and the professor questions. Udacity’s plan is to have interactive office hours for students. This acts as a time for students to ask the professor questions about the course and any problem they have had with the course material. Also, discussion forums will be set up online for students to interact with each other Here, students can ask each other questions, share opinions, and decide which topics the class should review with the professor.
Overall, there is a general rise in the popularity in online education. Many different universities and education professionals are beginning to start online education programs. There is a high demand in this field but as online education becomes more and more developed, only the best online programs will survive. Udacity is a pioneer in this field is well on its way to becoming successful. These new improvements to the curriculum are setting Udacity up above the rest of the programs. Ultimately, this rush to online education will lead to an entirely new form of education altogether where more students are being educated at lower costs.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/05/education/moocs-large-courses-open-to-all-topple-campus-walls.html?pagewanted=2&sq=moocs%20education%20classes&st=nyt&scp=1
Showing posts with label lower cost education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lower cost education. Show all posts
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Friday, February 10, 2012
The Future of Libraries
By Sean Scarpiello
This upcoming summer, my college is planning a new renovation of our library on campus. Since a good deal of money is being spent to upgrade the library, the administration of the college has been questioning the students about the sorts of changes we would like to see. Recently, between some of my friends, there has been a debate on what the library should keep and what should go. The overall question we are trying to answer is, “What are future libraries going to look like?”
Most of our library debate is focused on the books in the library. There are floors of shelves filled with old books. Most of these book look as if they haven’t been open for years. After some thought, I realized that I had never even checked out a book from the library. The only time I used a source directly from the college library was to read cutting edge biology articles from science journals. After making this discovery, I talked to some of my peers to see if they have signed books out of the library. For the most part, they had not checked out any books either. However, my friends who had checked out books described that they ultimately ended up online at GoogleBooks. Here, they were able to simply find the books the library had in print form, and do an automated search through the book. I have also used this resource for classes because it enables students to spend less time thumbing through hundreds of pages looking for a few informative pages.
For some courses like biology, psychology, and other sciences, there are few if any books to be used as sources in paper. This is due to the fact that new scientific breakthroughs are occurring every day. The new innovations make the old material obsolete, so there is no real purpose to having books on these topics. For other topics, such as political science, economics, and history, there are a multitude of books which are also slowly expiring. Scientific breakthroughs in DNA and other fields of science allow us to better understand our past in new ways. Perhaps it would be better to have a library of scientific journals and books on certain, slower progressing fields.
Some of my peers think there should be no books in the library at all. We could move to a library full of computers hooked up to online libraries and databases which are easy to access and quite possibly cheaper. The lack of physical books would free up a lot of space for these computers and study lounges. Also, students would be able to write papers more efficiently as they would not need to look through pages of books; looking for the needle in the haystack of information. Free tools such as GoogleBooks already have a program which allows limited access to thousands of books. College students everywhere are using these resources so they can spend less time in the library. It would only make sense to make this transition, yet some are still skeptical about going completely electronic. What do you think?
This upcoming summer, my college is planning a new renovation of our library on campus. Since a good deal of money is being spent to upgrade the library, the administration of the college has been questioning the students about the sorts of changes we would like to see. Recently, between some of my friends, there has been a debate on what the library should keep and what should go. The overall question we are trying to answer is, “What are future libraries going to look like?”
Most of our library debate is focused on the books in the library. There are floors of shelves filled with old books. Most of these book look as if they haven’t been open for years. After some thought, I realized that I had never even checked out a book from the library. The only time I used a source directly from the college library was to read cutting edge biology articles from science journals. After making this discovery, I talked to some of my peers to see if they have signed books out of the library. For the most part, they had not checked out any books either. However, my friends who had checked out books described that they ultimately ended up online at GoogleBooks. Here, they were able to simply find the books the library had in print form, and do an automated search through the book. I have also used this resource for classes because it enables students to spend less time thumbing through hundreds of pages looking for a few informative pages.
For some courses like biology, psychology, and other sciences, there are few if any books to be used as sources in paper. This is due to the fact that new scientific breakthroughs are occurring every day. The new innovations make the old material obsolete, so there is no real purpose to having books on these topics. For other topics, such as political science, economics, and history, there are a multitude of books which are also slowly expiring. Scientific breakthroughs in DNA and other fields of science allow us to better understand our past in new ways. Perhaps it would be better to have a library of scientific journals and books on certain, slower progressing fields.
Some of my peers think there should be no books in the library at all. We could move to a library full of computers hooked up to online libraries and databases which are easy to access and quite possibly cheaper. The lack of physical books would free up a lot of space for these computers and study lounges. Also, students would be able to write papers more efficiently as they would not need to look through pages of books; looking for the needle in the haystack of information. Free tools such as GoogleBooks already have a program which allows limited access to thousands of books. College students everywhere are using these resources so they can spend less time in the library. It would only make sense to make this transition, yet some are still skeptical about going completely electronic. What do you think?
Friday, January 20, 2012
Transitioning to iBooks 2.0
By Sean Scarpiello
Recently, Apple has introduced the updated version of their e books called iBooks 2.0. This new technology is aimed at students, educators, and just about everyone in the academic world. Apple has paired up with companies such as Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw Hill and Pearson to bring full textbooks to anyone who owns an iPad. As education quickly moves from the traditional classroom to cutting edge technology, some schools have already began to adopt iBooks, while some education experts remain unconvinced of iBooks' potential.
The new iBooks that Apple is offering will be completely interactive. This means the textbooks will offer add-ons like quizzes, flash cards, and more. In regular textbooks, there is often software containing interactive extras. These extras are often ignored by students because it takes too long to download the software on the computer. The iBooks will have interactive extras easily available and strategically placed into the readings so that students will not need to go out of their way to use them. Some experts believe that the extra quizzes and flash cards are not offering the correct type of interactive add-ons because they lack the ability for students to interact with other students around the world. However, when it comes to studying for tests repetition is key, not collaborating with other students. This repetition is exactly what the new iBooks offer, thus the iBooks will be successful.
The best part of these new iBooks for students is that they will be cheap. Most students pay upwards of a hundred dollars for a single textbook. In college, this may mean that students are paying around $700 for one semester. Apple has made arrangements with the textbook companies to sell the books for $14.99 or cheaper. These low prices for books are also great because it will make people buy the iPad. At first, people may be skeptical to drop $500 on an iPad and then pay for books, but since the books are cheap their investment in the iPad will quickly pay off.
Another neat aspect of iBooks 2.0 is that it comes with a program called iAuthor. This software allows people to make their own iBook. This can range from cookbooks to novels to even comic books and more. This is a really interesting function to the new iBooks. Teachers could be able make their students make iBooks and turn them in as projects. This will be especially important as iBooks will be the future of books. Eventually all textbooks will be based on today’s iBooks so it helps to learn how to make them as students.
Some schools are already making the transition to the iPad and iBooks 2.0. One such school, the University Christian School in Florida, is planning on having all of their students on new iPads in this upcoming September. Ideally, they hope to be completely off of the traditional five pound textbook in about two to three years. In the long run, the school feels that the transition will not only be more effective in teaching students, but it will also lower the cost to educate students.
Sources:
http://www.fastcompany.com/1809743/apples-announcement-the-educational-technology-world-reacts?partner=gnews
http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2012-01-19/story/jacksonville-private-school-switching-textbooks-tablets
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/apple/apple-targets-academia-with-ibooks-2-ibooks-author-and-itunes-u/12058
Recently, Apple has introduced the updated version of their e books called iBooks 2.0. This new technology is aimed at students, educators, and just about everyone in the academic world. Apple has paired up with companies such as Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw Hill and Pearson to bring full textbooks to anyone who owns an iPad. As education quickly moves from the traditional classroom to cutting edge technology, some schools have already began to adopt iBooks, while some education experts remain unconvinced of iBooks' potential.
The new iBooks that Apple is offering will be completely interactive. This means the textbooks will offer add-ons like quizzes, flash cards, and more. In regular textbooks, there is often software containing interactive extras. These extras are often ignored by students because it takes too long to download the software on the computer. The iBooks will have interactive extras easily available and strategically placed into the readings so that students will not need to go out of their way to use them. Some experts believe that the extra quizzes and flash cards are not offering the correct type of interactive add-ons because they lack the ability for students to interact with other students around the world. However, when it comes to studying for tests repetition is key, not collaborating with other students. This repetition is exactly what the new iBooks offer, thus the iBooks will be successful.
The best part of these new iBooks for students is that they will be cheap. Most students pay upwards of a hundred dollars for a single textbook. In college, this may mean that students are paying around $700 for one semester. Apple has made arrangements with the textbook companies to sell the books for $14.99 or cheaper. These low prices for books are also great because it will make people buy the iPad. At first, people may be skeptical to drop $500 on an iPad and then pay for books, but since the books are cheap their investment in the iPad will quickly pay off.
Another neat aspect of iBooks 2.0 is that it comes with a program called iAuthor. This software allows people to make their own iBook. This can range from cookbooks to novels to even comic books and more. This is a really interesting function to the new iBooks. Teachers could be able make their students make iBooks and turn them in as projects. This will be especially important as iBooks will be the future of books. Eventually all textbooks will be based on today’s iBooks so it helps to learn how to make them as students.
Some schools are already making the transition to the iPad and iBooks 2.0. One such school, the University Christian School in Florida, is planning on having all of their students on new iPads in this upcoming September. Ideally, they hope to be completely off of the traditional five pound textbook in about two to three years. In the long run, the school feels that the transition will not only be more effective in teaching students, but it will also lower the cost to educate students.
Sources:
http://www.fastcompany.com/1809743/apples-announcement-the-educational-technology-world-reacts?partner=gnews
http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2012-01-19/story/jacksonville-private-school-switching-textbooks-tablets
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/apple/apple-targets-academia-with-ibooks-2-ibooks-author-and-itunes-u/12058
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