Entire book Flashcards
(27 cards)
What was the first known university and what were the initial characterstics of universities?
University of Bologna in 1088 -
(1) Colleges are guilds of teachers that gave them licenses to teach. They only became places where students and teachers live together later in England to avoid violent clashes between students and townspeople.
(2) There was a short lived balance of power in favour of students who “hired” professors to teach and fired them if their class didn’t attract many students
(3) Early on universities positioned themselves as places where you can find scarce knowledge (teachers, books)
What were the first 2 tech revolutions that affected education? What were their implications?
(1) Written word - allowed for greath depth of argument and broader elaboration and organisation of thought. (Socrates was against it as he didn’t think that students were going to understand the jest of the author’s argument without speaking to him/her)
(2) Gutenberg’s press - which expanded supply of paper and made reading out loud redundant
Regardless, universities were still places were you could find scarce knowledge and guidance
What was Charles Eliot’s main influence?
Bringing together the 3 main ideologies in higher education of the time: liberal arts, practial education, and the research institution
What is liberal arts?
Education that allows the student to better understand the world, see the bigger picture and start connecting the dots. It is though of requiring a well designd curriculum. Hence, not ood idea to allows students to choose at this point.
Who have been some of the main critics of the hybrid university? What were their concerns?
(1) William James - 1903 - PHD Octopus: PHD not a good proxy for determining a good teacher
(2) Jacques Barzun - famous american teacher - 1940’s: too much academic freedom. Research had won the priority of the university
(3) Hutchins - UofChicago president - 1936 - poor quality education, treating students as customers (foresaw current luxuries), unis should choose what to teach (not other way around), what does the degree actually say about a student?
(4) Clark kerr - California master plan - liberal arts not paid attention, too much academic laissez faire.
- University of california system, california state university system, community colleges. Very influential and replicated in other states.
What is the magnitude of student debt?
Between 2004 and 2020 it went from 250bn to 1.6tr surpassing credit card loans which are 1tr in 2019
What are 2 indicators of poor educational quality?
(1) 45% of students hadn’t made any significant improvement in critical or analytical thinking in the first 2 years of uni
(2) 40% of grads failed to meet basic data and statistical knowledge
What are the main reasons why the hybrid university in the US failed to evolve?
(1) Being in the US - not destroyed in WW2 & culturally seen as a way to achieve upward social mobility
(2) Institutional isomorphism - coercive, mimetic, normative
(3) Consistent demand - G.I Bill (flow of WW2 veterans thanks to subsidy) ; 1965 Higher education act (subsidized loans) ; Federal Pell grant program for low income student subsidy
(4) Investment - Truman admin investment in research for total war during cold war
(5) Increasing value of the degree - white collar and tech jobs
What are 2 statistics that demontrate the growing value of college degrees?
(1) 1960 - 10% of US adults had a bachelors degree, 1970’s 20%, 2015 33%
(2) 1977 you could earn 40% more with a bachelors degree than with high school only. In 2005 this was 80% more
Why did tution increased so much in the 1980’s and onwards?
(1) Universities seen as luxury goods (exemplified by Trachtenberg in GW)
(2) Status competition - climbing the US News ranking
(3) Public funding decreased leaving unis with the need to support their themselves
What are the technological/knowledge barriers that prevented the improvement of teaching quality?
There were some information acquisition/processing barriers in the form of the lack of robust AI/HCI methods. However, most importantly, there was a lack of knowledge regarding the individual cognitive procesees that we engage in order to learn.
How does the current prospect of change in learning differ from previous hopes created by other technologies?
Letter, TV, and radio changed the form of delivery and the letter even allowed for some personalization (albeit extended over time). However, true change in learning design will only be created thanks to both cognitive science, HCI and AI
Why did university initiatives to bring higher education to the online realm failed?
In the 2000’s MIT, Columbia and others started online initiatives, however, failed after not being able to provide much value (they didn’t offer certificates) or cost reductions. Only non-profit MIT survived and didn’t change much (was not the end of unis).
What are some examples of startups that are tackling parts of the education puzzle? What do they do?
(1) Chegg - renting/selling textbooks between students & now other study options (expert advice, flaschards)
(2) Rafter (failed) - allowing unis to rent out a selection of textbooks to students at flat fee
(3) Piazza - online student-teacher interaction
(4) USEED - allows alumni to support independent student learning projects as a way of raising funds for uni
(5) CourseHero - allows students to upload and share study material
(6) Quizlet/Brainscape - allows to create flashcards
What are the characteristics of the Minerva project?
- 1st semester in SF and others in other cities around the world
- Allows to gather data as most of it is taught online
- Dean is Stephen Kosslyn who has studies learning/cognitive science all his life at
- Reduced tuition (10k) & focus on teaching (cohesive first year curriculum)
How much has VC investment in edtech increased between 2008 and 2018 (in the US)?
From 200m to 1.5bn
How can the hybrid university be compare to a platform?
In a way it is the original educational platform. Students need skills and singalling and scholars need to make a living so the get together and scholars provide classes
What are the main original MOOCs, and what has been their impact?
- Udacity - Sebastian Thrun - Create its own courses and wasn’t allowed to provide certs.
- Coursera - Andrew Ng - Platform for unis to provide courses - backed by John Doerr
- EdX - non profit platform for unis to provide courses
Impact was not in revolutionizing learning (yet) but in showing the wolrd that high quality eanring can happen outside of unis
What is an advantage of edtech startups vs traditional unis?
They have a storng financial incentives to reach a lot of people whereas traditional unis rely on exclusivity and dpeend on a limited phyiscal spcace
Where does the current value of credential come from?
(1) Facilitates employers or other educational institutions judge you in a general (cognitive ability, organisation etc.) or sometimes vocational way cheaply and simply.
Why have credential continued to exist without change and even rise in value?
(1) Monopoly that universities have over them
(2) Rise of white collar and tech jobs
(3) Being a requirement for employment or grad school
By how much have degrees raised in price over time?
Between 1983 and 2014 18k to 41k on average in the US
What might the future of credentials look like?
Digital credential will be able to hold lots more of metadata regarding what you learnt/how your learned it etc, and they will be machine discoverable MEANING that it will make lives easier for employers or other parties to assess the right match for them from an increasingly large pool of people. Badges/credentials will also be used to motivate learning
How does Open Badges work?
It’s an open source platform that allows companies and educational institutions to create “badges” that students can complete to certify the’ve learned something. Contains metadata and can be shared online
