Metrics in the future of education: Revolution of free global digital education

I once asked my university lecturer in mathematics: "don't you think we (students) would better and quicker grasp the complex equations if you were showing and rotating the 3D figure projected on the whiteboard instead of hand-drawing it and really try hard to have us imagine different rotations and perspectives?", my teacher looked at me as if I had just came from a distant planet.

Now what it seems to happen with education (and beyond just math) is so much more than just throwing 3D shapes on the wall using computers. Aaron Saenz at Singularity Hub posts "Yes, The Khan Academy IS the Future of Education":

I am left with little doubt that the Khan Academy represents the future of education. And it’s already here. Sal Khan does a very thorough job of explaining the ways in which the Khan Academy website takes its 2000 videos and expands them into a complete set of lessons, test exercises, and evaluations. If I could just highlight a few moments, however, I would point to the incredibly detailed blow by blow analysis that KA keeps of a student’s progress. Teachers can see the results of each and every problem the student attempted. ... With the Khan Academy, teachers would “intervene only when a student is stuck.” In other words, the KA is supplementing the education paradigm in such a way that teachers are only needed as corrective influences. They’ll be tutors more than lecturers. ... You can track your progress with some wonderful metrics. Teachers (or ‘coaches’) can monitor student progress in groups. Students can earn badges to keep them interested. The list goes on and on and it’s all free.

Aaron further writes:

My secret hope is that by the time I have children, and they are ready for school, they will be among the first generation raised in the new paradigm of digital education.

Aaron, I share your dream.

Watch the fresh TED video on Salman Khan: Let's use video to reinvent education

Source: http://singularityhub.com/2011/02/13/yes-the-khan-academy-is-the-future-of-education-video/
Link: http://www.khanacademy.org
Link: http://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education.html


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Your self-assessment metrics for 2011

What would be better to start off my very first post by probably the most significant family of all metrics: the self-assessment metrics. I am very glad that the random-precision law of the universe led me to this topic by this post by Rajesh Setty titled "Metrics that Matter for 2011". Rajesh simply put it in a clear-cut formula:

We are obsessed about measuring everything...Sometimes we forget that many things we should focus on cannot be measured with any scale (caring, love, joy, happiness, compassion etc.)...End of the year is a great time to stop, reflect and think about what are the metrics that really matter most to you.

His list of "Metrics that Matter for 2011" can be downloaded as a free PDF on his blog page.