[ExI] mit's answer to the stanford ai class

[Adrian Tymes]

It does do all these things - but there are two remaining pieces of value
that currently require a physical place for people to come to:

1) Proving that a certain person has a given general skill category.  For
example, in programming jobs, a Bachelor's in CS or a related field is
almost a union card.  Whether or not this should be the case, that is the
reality today.  With all-online learning, how do you prove that a given
person really did take a certain course of education - and how do you
gain mainstream acceptance of that proof?  The latter is the harder part
of this challenge.  Currently, "the student showed up here to take the
classes, or at least the critical exams" is the most commonly accepted
solution.  (Notice the physical-presence-required offer in this class from
a certain German university.)

2) Research.  Sure, a lot of research can be done virtually - but a lot can
not.  You can simulate a microfusion plant that in theory only costs $1,000
to build and makes cheaper output than coal - but funders of research will
want an actual demonstration plant, well aware that simulations of such
breakthroughs most often just mean the simulation is subtly flawed.  The
actual demonstration plant has to be built somewhere, and it will probably
need equipment not available to most DIY enthusiasts.

2011/12/21 spike <spike66 at att.net>:
> I was interested in Stanford’s AI online class as much for the innovative
> learning model as for the class content.  Of course MIT would have some kind
> of response:
>
> http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/mitx-education-initiative-1219.html
>
> The Stanford experiment was a critical breakthrough in education.  Once
> enough people try out an online course, they will develop that kind of
> learning as a skill set in itself.  That breaks the entire classical model
> of education as an exercise in getting to a class at a specific time,
> listening to one guy talk to a group of people, taking notes, studying for a
> test on a specific day, etc.  It eliminates the very difficult and
> uncomfortable move into a dormitory on a crowded and dangerous campus away
> from one’s home.  All that can be made far more flexible and cheaper, it can
> be dissociated with the minor league football franchises that the mainstream
> American colleges have become, it reduces education costs dramatically and
> creates a domino-effect of changes that will take years to see.