Dive Summary:
- Anant Agarwal, the head of EdX, Harvard and MIT's $60 million online education project, argues that the single most important advance in education technology over the past 200 years is about to take place.
- Agarwal believes internet computing devices are enabling educators to reach more students, more effectively than ever before.
- While 700,000 students are enrolled in full-time distance learning programs in the United States alone, EdX hopes to reach 1 billion students around the world.
From the article:
"If you were asked to name the most important innovation in transportation over the last 200 years, you might say the combustion engine, air travel, Henry Ford’s Model-T production line, or even the bicycle. The list goes on.
Now answer this one: what’s been the single biggest innovation in education?
Don’t worry if you come up blank. You’re supposed to. The question is a gambit used by Anant Agarwal, the computer scientist named this year to head edX, a $60 million MIT-Harvard effort to stream a college education over the Web, free, to anyone who wants one. His point: it’s rare to see major technological advances in how people learn. ..."
