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Amyaz Moledina

Should algebra be in curriculum? Why math protects us from the unscrupulous. - Slate Ma... - 0 views

www.slate.com/..._us_from_the_unscrupulous.html

math Mathematics higher education liberal-arts future

shared by Amyaz Moledina on 11 Feb 13 - No Cached
  • social scientist Andrew Hacker suggested eliminating algebra from the school curriculum as an “onerous stumbling block,” and instead teaching students “how the Consumer Price Index is computed.” What seems to be completely lost on Hacker and authors of similar proposals is that the calculation of the CPI, as well as other evidence-based statistics, is in fact a difficult mathematical problem, which requires deep knowledge of all major branches of mathematics including … advanced algebra.
  • Amyaz Moledina on 11 Feb 13
     
    Given the recent article that Grant shared about the quality of students coming in to college, (and the QL Horizons group), this article reinforces that there are multiple critical thinking "literacies" that are under siege. 
Jon Breitenbucher

Udacity's Sebastian Thrun, Godfather Of Free Online Education, Changes Course | Fast Co... - 0 views

www.fastcompany.com/...y-sebastian-thrun-uphill-climb

MOOC udacity thrun liberal-arts

shared by Jon Breitenbucher on 20 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • "From a pedagogical perspective, it was the best I could have done," he says. "It was a good class." Only it wasn't: For all of his efforts, Statistics 101 students were not any more engaged than any of Udacity's other students. "Nothing we had done had changed the drop-off curve," Thrun acknowledges.
  • Among those pupils who took remedial math during the pilot program, just 25% passed. And when the online class was compared with the in-person variety, the numbers were even more discouraging. A student taking college algebra in person was 52% more likely to pass than one taking a Udacity class,
  • "At the end of the day, the true value proposition of education is employment," Thrun says, sounding more CEO than professor. "If you focus on the single question of who knows best what students need in the workforce, it's the people already in the workforce. Why not give industry a voice?"
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Learning, after all, is about more than some concrete set of vocational skills. It is about thinking critically and asking questions, about finding ways to see the world from different points of view rather than one's own. These, I point out, are not skills easily acquired by YouTube video.
  • Thrun seems to enjoy this objection. He tells me he wasn't arguing that Udacity's current courses would replace a traditional education--only that it would augment it. "We're not doing anything as rich and powerful as what a traditional liberal-arts education would offer you," he says. He adds that the university system will most likely evolve to shorter-form courses that focus more on professional development. "The medium will change," he says.
  • "I wish to do away with the idea of spending one big chunk of time learning."
  • Jon Breitenbucher on 20 Nov 13
     
    Some interesting thoughts on the impact of MOOCs and the relevance of Liberal Arts.
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