Don't shoot me Santa Claus, I've been a clean living boy, I promise you, did every little thing you asked me to, I can't believe the things I'm going through...
- Otto
It's all part of the Santa reboot. Hollywood should now do a Santa Origins story, directed by Michael Bay of course.
- Jerry Perez
gittii giittii giitttii giiitti santa gitti :D
- €Lyaz
Saaantaa!!! Did it smell like cookies? lol
- John Tastad
makes getting down the chimney a lot easier.
- Morgan Haley
On Dasher! On Donner! On Cupi.....Oh SHIT! On Fire!!! On Fire!!!!
- Morgan Haley
Yes: "I have argued that universities will move to a superstar market for teachers in which the very best teachers use on-line instruction and TAs to teach thousands of students at many different universities. "
- Michael Nielsen
As a fairly high-touch teacher, I can't say that this prospect appeals.
- D0r0th34
I'm certainly not making a judgement about what appeals - I greatly prefer a small-group, high-interactivity approach, all other things being equal. But most big Universities have deliberately moved toward a model where lectures are delivered in a low-interaction way to a large audience. That's an approach where it makes a great deal of economic sense to try to scale to ever-larger audiences, which seems likely to result in a winner-takes-all kind of market.
- Michael Nielsen
I'm not sure it was entirely deliberate -- "unmindful" is the word I'd choose. But yes. I just wonder if there's going to be a student/parent backlash at some juncture. Are they really getting what they're supposedly paying for?
- D0r0th34
Having talked to a lot of administrators in Australia about this, yes, I think it was deliberate, at least there. A huge chunk of funding comes simply from student-hours taught, and so they try to ramp up numbers as much as possible.
- Michael Nielsen
I don't see much evidence of this in the UK but then few UK universities have been effective at putting high quality course materials online or teaching into a wider market
- Cameron Neylon
the US certainly has a lot of large-lecture intro courses at big unis, but we have some countervailing pressures to (perhaps?) keep us a little more honest: notably, SLACs, small state schools, and other smaller, high-touch schools.
- D0r0th34
Note that some of this is, shall we say, old news. When I attended UC Berkeley (1962-68), undergrad classes were generally either Very Large (200+, frequently 500+), taught by superstar teachers (including most of the Nobel laureates), or Very Small (<40, frequently 20-30), with lots of interaction, taught by combinations of junior faculty and grad TAs. In my fading memory, it worked great...within limits.
- Walt Crawford
Caveat: A few too many Very Large classes were taught by faculty who were only superstars in their own minds. But back then, we had Fybate Notes, so 90% of students in the dud courses just read the lectures rather than seeing them "live" (if reading from your own years-old lectures can be considered live).
- Walt Crawford
Cameron - How does funding in the UK work? Do Universities get paid per student? If so, I'd be very surprised if there wasn't upward pressure on class sizes, leading to massive low-touch classes where there's not a whole lot of difference between sitting in a lecture hall and watching on a screen.
- Michael Nielsen
Dorothea - something interesting about the leading SLACs is their (typically) enormous fees: essentially, you pay for what you get, a nice individualized, personal learning experience. It's a completely different economic model than the massive Universities cramming 500 or 1000 students into a hall, and probably one that's a lot more immune to the kind of thing described in the original post.
- Michael Nielsen
absolutely. the small state schools are the compromise option: more individualized than the big schools, less $$$, less breadth of subject matter, arguably less prestige, sometimes less quality (though for the most part I don't agree with that; there's no more deadwood at a small state school than at Big Research U).
- D0r0th34
it may be worth remarking that from where I'm sitting, our small state schools are kicking butt and taking names in undergraduate research compared to our two Big Research Us. Coincidence? I think not.
- D0r0th34
The model reminds a lot of the MAGIC group: http://maths.dept.shef.ac.uk/magic... "The MAGIC group runs a wide range of postgraduate-level lecture courses in mathematics, using Access Grid videoconferencing technology."
- Dan Hagon
I have been arguing for people to stop lecturing altogether: http://www.daniel-lemire.com/blog... Lectures in 2009 make no sense. They are a relic of the past. But as lectures disappear, I don't think the role of the "teacher" will also disappear, it will just transform. I hope we will go back to a form of apprenticeship.
- Daniel Lemire
Michael, funding is per student up to set maximums, beyond that no more money and there are hard limits annually on how many places are available to bid for. So there is pressure to be efficient and maximise numbers but it isn't open ended. Also very few general courses in UK, most are subject and stream specific so most have relatively small numbers. Maximum I ever taught was 120,...
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- Cameron Neylon
Cameron - thanks for that! It's very interesting, and suprises me. On your last point, the original post was talking about "superstar teachers", and it's clear from context that he meant teachers who are extremely good as teachers, not researchers. (His argument is a standard one in economics about winner-take-all markets like music, sport, etc: superstars with even a slight edge in the...
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- Michael Nielsen
Yes, but you need to create an impression that such people exist and deserve to be promoted first. Which means they need profile, for teaching, outside their own institution. I would guess this is most effectively kicked off by a few "famous" researchers doing some hard work on teaching and then that provides a known niche in which others can also excel. I couldn't name a single person...
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- Cameron Neylon
In the US, Richard Muller has become well known for his course "Physics for Future Presidents", largely off the back of scaling technologies (iTunes etc). When you have the means to scale lectures, it creates a winner-take-all situation, and you expect a market for superstars to emerge. E.g., the record player / gramaphone really helped create the current winner-take-all situation in music, turning it into a far more star-driven market.
- Michael Nielsen
My sense of what is happening at UF is rather like Cameron's last comment -- the so-called "superstar" teachers come from the ranks of researchers, not those who solely teach (per their contract -- the "lecturer" position). In fact, greater kudos are granted to researchers who can also teach than are given for teachers who also do research.
- Mickey Schafer
Michael, I rather like that notion of scalability...it's interesting and a different way for a teacher to consider "students" -- more in the sense of audience. In my recent conversations with non-academics, it seems that their use of the web is not this far-flung ambient surfing that many who hang out here are accustomed to. Instead, they have "go-to" places; and would prefer that major...
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- Mickey Schafer
The impression of a winner-takes-all situation may in fact be illusive. Clearly there will be popular expositors and the internet gives them a platform to reach a much wider audience than a single lecture theater. However the internet also allows individual learners to ability to consume material very specific to their personal learning interests - possibly far beyond a traditional...
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- Dan Hagon
Not entirely surprising, but hey, that's part of what membership is for.
- Mr. Gunn
Have there been any articles contributed by members that had open peer-review included? That would be very cool & seems like the supplementary online material could support publishing the manuscript versions along with referee reviews. Given that there's no risk the article would be "rejected," this seems like a really great mechanism for testing open-peer-review process. And I'd think that there has to be at least a handful of academy members who'd enjoy trying this out.
- Steve Koch
“At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, the late Kurt Vonnegut informs his pal, the author Joseph Heller, that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his wildly popular novel, Catch-22, over its whole history. Heller responds, ‘Yes, but I have something he will never have: Enough.’ “
- Steve
from Bookmarklet
To conclude, there is no such thing as financial freedom, at least not in the conventional sense of the term, which is the great deception. Paradoxically, the pursuit of financial freedom is closer to slavery than it is liberating. Furthermore, and in my humble opinion, freedom cannot be procured by financial means — freedom most likely lies at the point at which the utility for money...
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- Steve
The whole post can be summarized by paraphrasing one of the comments: "Having enough is the definition of financial friedom"
- Maхx Tee
from iPhone
Left to right, as if you didn't know already: Dan Hsiao, Casey Muller, Ana Yang, Jim Norris, Tudor Bosman, Bret Taylor, Paul Buchheit (with Camilla), Sanjeev Singh, Kevin Fox.
- Tudor Bosman
That's why I love today's web : you can talk with the people that build the next web, and see those who build your current web. Congrats guys!
- Zackatoustra
FriendFeed Team, I love you !!!! Thanks to you all, I'm very happy everyday!!!
- Renchin(Reina)
So that was the TGIFF ("Thank Goodness It's FriendFeed") party? Perhaps slightly off-topic, but if Camiila hasn't been betrothed yet, have I got a grandson for her ;-))
- ianf ⌘
TGIFF was excellent. Great event and great people.Thanks for the invite and hospitality.
- AJ Kohn
Louis, thank you and thank you to the FriendFeed team for making a killer product and hosting a great open house!
- Brian Solis
(bump) Ana and Casey are now married. Here's a pic of them on the left, between Ross and Jim. Congratulations to Ana and Casey! (per http://friendfeed.com/jessica...)
- Louis Gray
علی حجوانی تو روحت، ای واسه چه موقعیه؟ :)))
- Mehran
:))))))))) مال بعد از عیده. اواخر فروردین فک کنم
- Aly
"Most media companies are trying hard ... to boost the value of their online content until it matches the amount of money it costs to produce. But Rosenblatt thinks they have it exactly backward. Instead of trying to raise the market value of online content to match the cost of producing it — perhaps an impossible proposition — the secret is to cut costs until they match the market value."
- j1m
They already do. My DROID syncs with my Facebook and Google contacts, converging them both for the same contact on either network. Don't ask me how that's done though
- LANjackal
You mean your DRIOD can get to the email addresses of your facebook contacts?
- Bindu Reddy
Yep, as well as any numbers, addresses or work positions they have listed on FB
- LANjackal
from IM
There's a reason contact management on the DROID has been praised as the best implementation thereof in the smartphone arena, if not anywhere period
- LANjackal
from IM
""Open" is a great thing. Everyone likes it." Maybe everyone you know ;)
- Clare Dibble
a friend of mine has a bb storm and it integrates w/ facebook (when i call him, my facebook avatar shows up... etc etc) -- the Droid being able to combine contact lists and merge them when applicable sounds like the next step
- Chris Heath
It's still not open. That data is locked into the built in contacts app and you can't get it at an api level. Android 2.0 has a complete (well, half-baked) contact model that allows aggregating contact info. Not to mention that when I entered my contact info into facebook that I understood it was going to be shared that way. But from an end-user standpoint it's great!
- Hayes Haugen
@LANJackal that sounds great... I guess my information is dated than..
- Bindu Reddy
Very great post. One of the best. This share remember me with two other great peoples described by Katie Hafner is his book (Where the wizards stay up late): Vint Cerf (you known what i mean) and Dave Clark (by his famous quote : "we reject kings presidents and voting. we believe in rough consensus and running code.") With an "open" mind like yours, they make with days, months, years, a very great open life fluid. I'm very happy to follow you. As Louis Gray says : Please keep blogging. Thank you.
- Guy Vander Heyden
Just like with any other activity, the intention behind being open is very important. If somebody wants to manipulate or mislead, then it can be dangerous to follow them. We just have to be aware of extremes. That said, I have learnt a lot from following you and thanks for sharing your ideas so eloquently.
- Shakeel Mahate
Hey, thanks for the mention - I'm glad you're enjoying Alfie Kohn's book. He makes me think.
- Laura Norvig
Thanks Laura. I've actually "outsourced" the reading to April, but she tells me about it :)
- Paul Buchheit
Heh, see this is the type of efficiency mindset you've developed by running a startup.
- Laura Norvig
"Armed with rock chisels, it took the thief only a few minutes to wipe out 135 million years of history. The fossilised iguanodon footprint was hacked out of the limestone slab where it had lain in a Dorset quarry and spirited away by an illicit collector. Some 5,000 miles away in southern India, scientists last month issued a plea for villagers and even student palaeontologists to halt the mass looting of hundreds of dinosaur eggs whose petrified embryos could shed new light on the extinction of a species. Fascination with the ferocious beasts has never been greater, with scientists announcing almost weekly the discovery of new prehistoric species from giant crocodiles to feathered lizards that bear testimony to an evolutionary link with birds. But with a pristine Tyrannosaurus rex specimen fetching up to $8.3m (£5m), there is growing concern that a booming trade in stolen or illicit fossils is wrecking unique sites and seeing previously unknown species disappear into private collections, where they are lost to science."
- RAPatton
from Bookmarklet
"After a spate of thefts in Scotland and northern England seven years ago, when fossil hunters armed with diggers, electric saws and dynamite stole stones worth ten of thousands of pounds, police and wildlife conservation bodies launched a campaign to crack down on illegal collectors. A voluntary code of conduct for Britain's army of enthusiasts has also been successful in ensuring that...
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- RAPatton
"Decades of expertise in fossil cleaning mean that Britain is also profiting from the commercial trade. Consignments of Chinese dinosaur eggs discovered in the 1990s were prepared in the UK, revealing beautifully preserved dinosaur embryos. But, because they have been sold to private collections and question marks remain about whether they were legally exported from China, scientists...
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- RAPatton
With the new start-up website, one can create a webpage in seconds. The service is like a URL Shortening to your content. By creating different webpages, you can also create a simple website. The website can be used for publishing Resumes, writing an article and sharing it on social networks, or surprising a friend by sending the link of the page you made for.
- ahmet
"It occurred to me that I was suffering from information obesity. Prosperity has caused most of us to go from problems associated too little food to problems associated with too much food. Until you adjust to the change, hoarding and binging can make you fat, sick, and miserable. Once I started thinking about information the same way, I could just picture the greasy fat folds in my brain."
- Michael Nielsen
"... greasy fat folds in my brain." Yes.
- Polly Potter
Several good tips here: http://www.labnol.org/interne... (Save to PDF, Convert partial feed item to full feed via email, AddThis/AddToAny/ShareThis, Backtweets/Technorati/GoogleBlogSearch related conversations)
- LogEx