Truly awesome: Daphne Koller explains Coursera

There has been much discussion in recent months about the impact of MOOCs and online courses on the traditional model of Higher Education. Coursera, an online platform where you can take a range of online courses for free, has caused much hand-wringing about the future of the university in an increasingly online world.

But this TED talk by Coursera founder Daphne Koller should go a long way to calming the fears of all those who truly believe that education can make the world a better place. For anyone working in Higher Education, this short video is well worth 20 minutes of your time:

My 100th post! Another thought-provoking video...

Techtrees is 100 today! Not 100 years old of course, but 100 posts. I hope you have found the content that I've shared over the past year to be useful and thought-provoking.

On that note, I wanted to share another historical video made by Marshall McLuhan in 1966. Similar to the Asimov video in a previous post, this video illustrates how uncannily accurate some people have been in predicting the advent of networked learning:

Isaac Asimov's future of education - 1988

An amazing interview with sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov. Recorded in 1988, it's as if he had already glimpsed the future of technology in imagining an education system that would finally put the learner at the centre:

e-Learning and Digital Cultures

This excellent blog post by David Hopkins provides a useful summary of the activity in the short #edcmooc currently being run by Coursera and the University of Edinburgh. David also draws attention to the near-future of education and technology and provides a useful critique of 'utopian / dystopian' discourse (Hand and Sandwell, 2002) and provides links to some interesting videos:

The changing role of the teaching in a personalised learning environment

Just came across this post which explores how the role of the tutor could change in response to an increasingly personalised system of online education:

http://www.teachthought.com/learning/6-possible-roles-for-teachers-in-a-personalized-learning-environment/

Given all the recent debates about MOOCs and their impact on HE it's interesting to consider if and how the age-old practice of teaching might change. Perhaps we will just return to a more Socratic method of personalised instruction?

iPads and mobile learning - ideas for use in the classroom

Use of iPads in educational contexts is increasing exponentially. But hoe are students and tutors making use of this mobile technology: Here are some posts that provide ideas for using iPads and tablets in your teaching:

12 principles of mobile learning  Useful key guiding principles to guide the use of mobile devices in learning 
 
23 ways to use the ipad in the 21st century problem-based learning classroom

25 ways to use the iPad in the classroom

12 characteristics of an iPad-ready classroom

iPads in Art and Design

iPads and Assistive Technology

Interesting blog post exploring the ways in which the iPad can help students with learning difficulties:

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/assistive-technology-one-to-one-andrew-marcinek