Health : Healthcare :: Learning : Education

With the advent of open education resources, social networking technologies and new pedagogies for online and blended learning, we are in the early stages of a significant disruption in current models of education. ‘Learning’ is beginning to peel away from ‘Education’ as a separate market, with its own set of opportunities and challenges for practitioners, technologists, and [...]

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Transforming the Industry: Watson in Education

Watson, named after IBM founder Thomas J. Watson, was built by a team of IBM scientists with valuable help from research partners from Carnegie Mellon University, University of Texas, University of Southern California, University of Massachusetts, University of Trento (Italy), MIT, RPI, and the University of Albany. The team set out to accomplish a grand [...]

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SoCS Computational Models and Techniques: A Case Study

I spoke today at the NSF Workshop on Social-Computational Systems (SoCS) on Mike Pazzani‘s Computational Models and Techniques panel with Tuomas Sandholm, Lise Getoor, and Tina Eliassi. We were asked to address the questions of what computation can teach us about socially intelligent systems, and what problems are encountered when applying existing technologies to such systems. [...]

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Open Social Learning Communities

With the advent of open education resources, social networking technologies and new pedagogies for online and blended learning, we are in the early stages of a significant disruption in current models of education. The disruption is fueled by a staggering growth in demand. It is estimated that there will be 100 million students qualified to [...]

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Towards A National Study Guild

New post on blog@CACM: My presentation to President Obama’s Science & Technology advisory council (PCAST) on Education. “Imagine a Facebook where the point is to study together, not trade pictures and jokes. Imagine a World of Warcraft where students earn levels and points by helping each other learn. Not a video game that teaches physics; [...]

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Open Social Learning aka Massively Multiplayer Online Learning

“Our Open Social Learning solution to these three problems of education is therefore elegantly simple. In this solution OpenCourseWare courses are augmented by a community of learners who help one another, support one another and learn together as they socialize and spend time together online. Not only is this solution validated by educational research, it is also eminently scaleable [...]

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Make the World your Study Group

CNN Chalk Talk: A new website called OpenStudy allows students to share resources and learn with one another from all over the world. Click the image to watch the video (3 min.) Read the transcript: CNN Chalk Talk, October 1, 2010 T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Well, coming up, calling all college students. There’s now a group [...]

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OpenStudying the Classics

I recently met Dr. Diana E. E. Kleiner, a distinguished professor at my alma mater and director of the Open Yale Courses initiative. We were talking about “OpenStudying the Classics”—to my knowledge, the first use of “OpenStudy” as a verb.[1] This made me think—what does it mean to “OpenStudy” something? Some background first. In collaboration [...]

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Massively Multiplayer Online—Learning?

Massively Multiplayer Online—Learning? aka, Are social networks disrupting models of education? I spoke recently at a panel on Rebooting the University: Disruptions in Models of Learning.[1] In preparing my presentation, I found myself thinking about the topic of the panel. Are there new “models of learning”? The brain hasn’t changed all that much, has it? [...]

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Teaching Computational Thinking to Third-Graders

From the Paideia School Newsletter, March 2009: Computational Thinking is a new way of solving problems that derives from computer science. It involves approaching problems in a systematic, step-by-step manner, and building up solutions to complex problems from smaller pieces. Nowadays, computational thinking is a fundamental skill for everyone, not just computer scientists. Many educators [...]

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