hacker academy

[kiba]

How about a learning site for programmer-wannabe?

There would be three levels:

1. Short videos that are continuously modified and improved. Most of the content are free. Ads supported.

2. Flat tuition fee. You get put in a class of 30 individuals headed by a tutor for 3 weeks on a subject.

3. Pay as you go tuition. You get to pick a tutor who will devote X amount of minutes to you.

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[BrightAnarchist]

What you're describing is the future of much education IMO. Tuition fees at universities are extreme, which is crazy since so much knowledge can be imparted easily online at zero cost -- for example, take a look at MIT's open courseware. I could easily see current 100K college degrees being done nearly for free online (or partially online) in the future. There will be quite a backlash against this trend from the academic community though...

[Bimmerhead]

How about a learning site for programmer-wannabe?

There would be three levels:

1. Short videos that are continuously modified and improved. Most of the content are free. Ads supported.

2. Flat tuition fee. You get put in a class of 30 individuals headed by a tutor for 3 weeks on a subject.

3. Pay as you go tuition. You get to pick a tutor who will devote X amount of minutes to you.

Yes please, when can I sign up?

What you're describing is the future of much education IMO. Tuition fees at universities are extreme, which is crazy since so much knowledge can be imparted easily online at zero cost -- for example, take a look at MIT's open courseware. I could easily see current 100K college degrees being done nearly for free online (or partially online) in the future. There will be quite a backlash against this trend from the academic community though...

Exactly.  And the sooner the better.  The teacher's unions will go ballastic of course, but probably not that many voters care what the educrats think anymore.

[tyler]

How about a learning site for programmer-wannabe?

There would be three levels:

1. Short videos that are continuously modified and improved. Most of the content are free. Ads supported.

2. Flat tuition fee. You get put in a class of 30 individuals headed by a tutor for 3 weeks on a subject.

3. Pay as you go tuition. You get to pick a tutor who will devote X amount of minutes to you.

Yes please, when can I sign up?

What you're describing is the future of much education IMO. Tuition fees at universities are extreme, which is crazy since so much knowledge can be imparted easily online at zero cost -- for example, take a look at MIT's open courseware. I could easily see current 100K college degrees being done nearly for free online (or partially online) in the future. There will be quite a backlash against this trend from the academic community though...

Exactly.  And the sooner the better.  The teacher's unions will go ballastic of course, but probably not that many voters care what the educrats think anymore.

What about abolishing teachers unions?

[QuantumMechanic]

Sal Khan at http://www.khanacademy.org/ has said he will be focusing on computer science soon, but that since it's his specialty, he's postponed doing it because he wants to really do it properly.  Now (especially) that he's got Google and Bill Gates backing his free online school, I think we can expect really good stuff on this subject coming from him.

[kiba]

Sal Khan at http://www.khanacademy.org/ has said he will be focusing on computer science soon, but that since it's his specialty, he's postponed doing it because he wants to really do it properly.  Now (especially) that he's got Google and Bill Gates backing his free online school, I think we can expect really good stuff on this subject coming from him.

The only problem is his content isn't available for commercial usage. It wouldn't be suitable for a real academy.

[QuantumMechanic]

The only problem is his content isn't available for commercial usage. It wouldn't be suitable for a real academy.

I was thinking of it more as a replacement for a 'real' academy.  By real do you mean accredited?

Also, I think the idea behind the Khan Academy is to crowdsource tutoring and other support.  Sal doesn't seem at all opposed to these people being compensated for their work - not that he'd be able to control the situation much if he was.  So I think that aside from being able to provide accreditation, it could have all the useful elements of a 'real' academy.

Another source for support - in addition to Khan's future material - are local hackerspaces, which seem to be growing and springing up very rapidly.

[kiba]

I was thinking of it more as a replacement for a 'real' academy.  By real do you mean accredited?

Also, I think the idea behind the Khan Academy is to crowdsource tutoring and other support.  Sal doesn't seem at all opposed to these people being compensated for their work - not that he'd be able to control the situation much if he was.  So I think that aside from being able to provide accreditation, it could have all the useful elements of a 'real' academy.

Another source for support - in addition to Khan's future material - are local hackerspaces, which seem to be growing and springing up very rapidly.

We wouldn't be able to use his material to teach because it's a commercial enterprise, not that it is accredited.

I think accreditation actually harm the academy. I would like the academy to succeed on its own merit, not be tangled up by accreditation.

[QuantumMechanic]

My point is just that if Sal does a good job of the computer science thing - and I'm sure he will - then it'll be hard to compete with free, especially given his rapidly growing fame.

[kiba]

My point is just that if Sal does a good job of the computer science thing - and I'm sure he will - then it'll be hard to compete with free, especially given his rapidly growing fame.

Who said the video are paid?

[QuantumMechanic]

My apologies.  He does, on the other hand, have something like 2 million dollars to go into the development of his videos and software, not to mention lots of fame to pull potential customers away from competitors.  But I think a similar competing model where tutors are instead screened and hired would be beneficial if whatever quality control scheme he uses for his crowdsourced tutors doesn't work well.

Also, I wouldn't be so sure he'd be averse to people providing a tutoring service based around his content.  This isn't the impression I've gotten, at least.

[Bitcoin Oz]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=65845.0  Kiba here is how you get to the hacker school.

[zer0]

MIT open courseware > Khan. Their python and phys classes are awesome, plus most material free online already

[Bigpiggy01]

Sal Khan at http://www.khanacademy.org/ has said he will be focusing on computer science soon, but that since it's his specialty, he's postponed doing it because he wants to really do it properly.  Now (especially) that he's got Google and Bill Gates backing his free online school, I think we can expect really good stuff on this subject coming from him.

DUDE 

Thank you for posting that khanacademy link. I've got a couple of students headed for the US this summer and this stuff is BRILLIANT for doing prep work for them.