In the USA Today article, "A World Where Grades Will Be Left Behind" by Mary Beth Marklein, Google's Vice President and Stanford research professor Sebastian Thrun talks about Udacity. Udacity is his education company in Palo Alto, California, that is seeking to make a radical change in education. This change includes a fun, game-like learning style, which is free and has no grades. The courses are online and are taught by great professors across the world.
Udacity is a high-tech experiment, like many others, to take education to new levels. His friend, Sal Kahn, inspired something that we already have learned about this semester, how to "flip" the classroom. Other schools are also teaching game-playing curriculum at a cost as low as a cell phone bill.
Thrun said that technology has enabled educators to personalize education and make it better. At Udacity there are no more "one-size-fits-all" classes. The education will be tailored to fit the individual student. For example: a student can decide how much more or less instruction they may need to show that they understand a certain skill. He also said that grades will not exist, because he believes that grades are "the failure of the education system." The courses will be free, but there may be certification and exam fees that will be conducted separately from the learning process.
Even though this new way of learning may take off and be great, Thrun doesn't think that regular school will be going anywhere. He used the analogy of how movies didn't completely replace live theater, but movies can reach a larger crowd for a lower price. This is like the internet; it can reach more people than a school, located in just one spot, for a much lower price. He said that his vision offers "a message of hope, of aspiration--not of destruction."
My reaction to this article is mixed. Even though this concept sounds good, I have a few questions that concern me about this new way of learning. I like the idea that it will be mostly free, but somewhere in this process, money will have to be involved. Where will it come from? I also like the fact that there are no grades and individuals work at their own pace. The question I have about this is, where does the motivation come from? Some students are not self-motivated. If there are no grades, what makes them strive to do their best? I think the game-style curriculum will make it fun for learning, but real jobs are not always just playing games. I am interested to see Udacity's progress in the future.
This is an article that is celebrating USA Today's 30th anniversary. Along with Sebastian Thrun, they made a video of other visionaries, asking them to talk about how they think the world will be in "The Next 30 Years." I am excited about my future in teaching with technology and all the changes that will be made over the next 30 years.
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