Stephen Downes

University 2.0 - Sebastian Thrun
Sebastian Thrun, DLD Conference, January 25, 2012.

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Sebastian Thrun repeating the message: "The effect it had on me was really profound. I never thought that this would happen. I always thought that I was, in Stanford, the world's best university, and I was a great teacher. Having done this, I can't teach at Stanford again. It's impossible. I feel like there's a red pill and a blue pill, and you can take the blue pill and go back to your classroom and lecture your 20 students, but I have taken the red pill, and I've seen wonderland. And we have changed the world, I think, with education. If we can make education free for the world, accessible everywhere, I think we can help people in the developing world, in Africa, and India, and China, to become much better, much stronger, and I think that's going to be core to the new society. I'm extremely exited about this." Yeah, me too. Not just about what Thrun is doing. About what we are doing. (Hits Today: 6 Total: 967) [Direct Link] [Tags: Accessibility, China, Online Learning, Africa]

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Comments

Re: University 2.0 - Sebastian Thrun

Anymouse, January 26, 2012

Stephen,

I am very curious as to why you are not excited by what Thrun is doing?

Ok, I was prompted to make this comment longer so it would mean something. I believe your answer to this question is important as I believe it will describe why you believe education should remain institutionalized. But, I have been very wrong about EdTechs in the past...

Peter [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: University 2.0 - Sebastian Thrun

Stephen Downes, January 26, 2012

It's not that I'm not excited by what Thrun is doing.

But I'm not excited *only* by what Thrun is doing. He is doing the same thing a whole bunch of us have been doing for a while now. What do you think all those Connectivism courses were?

And yes, I'm excited by that. By what *we* - including Thrun - are doing.
[Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: University 2.0 - Sebastian Thrun

Anymouse, January 26, 2012

Thanks Stephen.

Ok, so I was wrong. It wasn't about Thrun bailing on Stanford and kind of giving the bird to doing this MOOC work from within the institution. Your lack of excitement was more about how what Thrun was doing is an isolated event. When there has already been considerable work done by others (@downes, @gsiemens, @davecormier, etc...) in running MOOCs for a few years now. It would have been better if the Thrun "announcement" had information about the MOOC movement as a whole and that would have excited you more...

I trust I got it right... thanks again for the quick reply.

Peter [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: University 2.0 - Sebastian Thrun

Stephen Downes, January 26, 2012

Right. The Thrun thing should not be seen as an isolated event. [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

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