Would computers be replacing teachers soon?

Do you think online education would replace part or most of the face-to-face education?

If you don’t think this would happen, see this and this computers can and have successfully replaced teachers:

Cash-strapped school districts, from Florida to Washington, have discovered that minimally supervised students hunched over laptops can outperform their lectured counterparts for a fraction of the cost.

As long as schools measure performance simply by rote memorization on multiple-choice tests, no teacher can compete with instant access to the world’s information. Unless schools change, more and more teachers will find themselves replaced by computers.

Photo image: Google

Tony Bates remarks in his post and I responded here.

Educating the world, with more automation seems to be the trend that wouldn’t be turned back.  Productivity is the key to mass education, and the wheel would move on.  So, we might be better off in checking the pulse of such changes, and adapt to them, in response.  Education is a great business for every one to get into, in order to lead us to a great future.

Refer to my part 2 on 

Do we really need teachers in post-secondary education? Photo image: Google

See this AI.

Venture Capital and MOOC

I have been thinking about the relationship between venture capital and MOOCs, on how monetizing MOOC would work.

Here is wonderful video on Entrepreneurship Through the Lens of Venture Capital.

I am pretty impressed with David’s points here (starting at 17:14):

“If you build something amazing that is transformative and important, there will come a time when you can monetize it.  In the meantime, you know, there will be a market for it.  There will be an opportunity to grow, it will have a positive impact on the world, and that would be of value, and create value,…. what is it like six months…”

“We are all making guesses of the future.”

That is really an aha moment for me, when I reflect on what the whole MOOC means.  If I were to re-phrase the whole concept of venture capital, by borrowing the statement of David, and apply it in MOOC, it means like:

“If you could build MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), that are transformative and important in educating the world, there will come a time when you can monetize it.  Here, we have a huge global market for these MOOCs.  We could now take up this opportunity to develop and experiment with all these flipping the class, short video based lectures showcasing the best professors, and offering the best educational videos, and assessment system (computer-based quizzes, practices, automated marking and grading system, and peer to peer assessment).  These will have a positive impact on the world, and would be of great value to any student in the world, and create value to HE institutions and HE globally. ”

As an educator, I think it’s time for me to get educated in this venture capital, and may be enrolled into a Venture Capital MOOC, so I could be ready for the MOOCs.

I think this video is really a must watch for any one who is interested in MOOCs or one who wants to understand the relationship between a business such as MOOC and Venture Capital.

This MOOC and Higher Education provides a wonderful summary of MOOC and the possible business model.

Can Venture Capital save the world?  Yes.  Can MOOC save Higher Education? Yes, if the Venture Capitalists win.

See these: Will MOOC revolutionize Higher Education?  Into the future with MOOC.

If you are an educator, are you ready for this venture capital?  If you are not, what would you do?