Special Blog Post Assignment

A world where grades don't matter, is a USA Today article written by Mary Beth Marklein. In celebration of USA TODAY's 30th anniversary a few of USA's greatest visionaries were interviewed to talk about the world of tomorrow. Mary Beth Marklein wrote about Sebastian Thrun, a Google Vice President who has founded an education company called Udacity. Mr. Thrun plans to revolutionize education through Udacity which is his education company in California.
Udacity is a completely different type of education, because learning will be free and available to anyone interested in operating like a whimsical style playground. Never be late for class again, failure no longer being an option, and a lesson plan similar to Angry Birds. Does this sound like an educational system for you? Sebastian Thrun says learning should be as much fun as it is to play a video game. Udacity was created after teaching a free-online artificial intelligence course that drew more than 160,000 students. He had such an experience that he decided he could no longer teach in a traditional Stanford classroom. Udacity is his idea of having an online catalog full of free online courses taught by professors from around the world. Special effects and videos are also being incorporated into Udacity.

Sal Kahn is a friend of Mr. Thrun who is a huge supporter of the "flipped classroom". He has inspired a number of schools across the country to "flip" their classrooms. When you flip a classroom it allows the students to watch video lectures at night, and discuss and complete homework during the following day. It reduces unnecessary lecture time in the classrooms, which gives students the time they need on each lesson. It's amazing that New Charter University and UniversityNow are working to make an online education as affordable as a cell phone bill. Also, Charter schools have created a curriculum based on game playing.

How exactly will education look like in 30 years? Honestly nobody knows! Thanks to technology enabling educators the future is looking very promising. Silicon Valley entrepreneurs is also personalizing education and scaling it up. Classes involving a sequence of increasingly more challenging exercises and quizzes aimed at helping students master a particular concept or skill. Instead of the same skills taught over and over that will never carry over into the real world. Thrun is planning a funeral for brick and mortar schools. Instruction will be free, but related services may involve a fee. Honestly that sounds a lot better than the rising tuition rates we are currently facing.

Before EDM 310 I would have been completely confused when reading this article. I have never before been in a class with no pencils, paper, or grades. At first I was very skeptical and honestly nervous because I like my work right in front of me neatly organized. Thanks to my PLN and Google Docs I have been very pleased with the course. Technology is changing around us and educators are taking advantage of a new updated way of learning and educating others. My way of thinking has completely changed thanks to Dr. Strange and Edm instruction. I do not completely agree with Mr. Thrun and his vision for a failure free education. In my opinion we all fail at some point in our life, and my failures have made me stronger and the person that I am today. I also enjoy meeting with my instructors rather than online courses. Through online courses that I have taken I often felt alone with little help. The Wednesdays that I meet with my classmates and Dr. Strange always help me to feel like I am aware of what is going on in the course. The email, facebook, twitter, and the class blog are excellent and informative ways to communicate through online assignments in EDM 310. Technology in classrooms are a MUST and flipped classrooms are so effective from what I have seen so far. I cannot wait to be an educator that leaves the past with the paper and pencils. I do agree that grades are discouraging and just really don't always show the effort put into the course. EDM 310 will be a grade that I worked a lot harder for than most A's I have received in the past. So therefore I plan on grades not being the most important factor in my future classroom.