Posted on 06/22/2009 7:54:49 AM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion
Former General Electric Co. Chief Executive Jack Welch is putting his name and money behind a little-known educational entrepreneur, injecting some star power into the budding industry of online education.
Mr. Welch is paying more than $2 million for a 12% stake in Chancellor University System LLC, which is converting formerly bankrupt Myers University in Cleveland into Chancellor University. It plans to offer most courses online. Chancellor will name its Master of Business Administration program The Jack Welch Institute.
Chancellor's leading investor is Michael Clifford, an entrepreneur who has launched two publicly traded companies in the past year: Grand Canyon Education Inc., which operates Grand Canyon University, and Bridgepoint Education Inc., which operates Ashford University and University of the Rockies.
Investor groups led by Mr. Clifford bought those three institutions out of troubled situations and converted them to primarily online universities.
Mr. Welch's name may help add allure to for-profit, online education, which is growing rapidly despite nagging questions about quality.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Therefore competition in education is a boon to the public.
I hope online education prospers. The whole article is interesting.
I personally think online education is the wave of the future. It will be a long time before some programs (ABA approved law for instance) would grant any credits online but it is quite telling if even NYU’s prestigious tax LLM program is now online... I think ultimately a lot of higher education will be
With the cost of brick & mortar educations rising faster than healthcare costs, there will be a big push into online coursework. I predicted this a few years ago.
For the second-most obvious reason, the death of brick & mortar universities will be a blow to liberalism.....therefore, online cannot get here fast enough.
I can imagine some of the courses:
Neutron Bomb your company
Creating fear and anxiety in your workforce
There are large number of state-licensed professionals who are required to have X number of hours each year of continuing education. (Lawyers, accountants, appraisers, realtors, etc.) That’s easy money from a course content viewpoint. Go for it!
Over the years a massive tuition bubble has developed that is unsustainable and will burst. Online education is the cheaper technology that will precipitate it. We need to start a Dinosaur College Deathwatch.
An online educated employee that knows how to leverage internet connected computers and people to get things done is worth much more than someone that needs a brick and mortar classroom to learn new things.
I’m completing my MBA online at an AACSB accredited college.
Why not? It’s the same piece of paper and I can do the work on MY time. It also costs MUCH less.
College Drivel: “But what about the networking? You can’t do that online!”
Ha! It’s even better because you are in class with people all over the world!
Mike
Over the years a massive tuition bubble has developed that is unsustainable and will burst. Online education is the cheaper technology that will precipitate it. We need to start a Dinosaur College Deathwatch.With the cost of brick & mortar educations rising faster than healthcare costs, there will be a big push into online coursework. I predicted this a few years ago.For the second-most obvious reason, the death of brick & mortar universities will be a blow to liberalism.....therefore, online cannot get here fast enough.
3 posted on June 22, 2009 10:58:39 AM EDT by Erik Latranyi
. . . following in the footsteps of Accuracy In Media, which created Accuracy In Academia . . .What do you think,
Reed Irvineabb?
I’m completing my MBA online at an AACSB accredited college.
Bump!
OMG! My plate is running over. I just started a local blog last week and it is sucking up the time.
The concept of a brick & mortar free diploma will eventually come to pass. I'm doing scads of study about communications history as we type. Knowledge is more widely available to more humans more extensively and in more formats than any time in human history. If someone is ignorant, it's because they choose to be so.
Mr Toyoda stated recently that the cost of knowledge is approaching zero. In the past, you had to pay specialized people with special knowledge. Today, you can find that knowledge for free.
Education without bricks-and-mortar ping.Have you noticed Wolfram's Mathematica? It appears to reduce some of the traditional studies in algebra, trigonometry and calculus to close to the status arithmetic has in the era of the computerized spreadsheet.
It does not of course obviate the significance of study of math, but IMHO it changes the rationale and priorities of the study of math. Along with HyperPhysics and HyperMath, it looks like a godsend for the homeschooler.
What grade would you start Mathmatica?
What grade would you start Mathmatica?
Mathematica is not a course, it is a tool - like a spreadsheet is an arithmetic tool, mathematica is a tool which is used in some high schools. I would look for an online course which used mathematica to empower the student to play with the math concepts of the lessons.But the more fundamental fact of mathematica is that it does the integration function symbolically, functioning in effect like a table of integrals which is complete - if a solution exists mathematica is supposed to spit it out pronto. Which moots, IMHO, the traditional study of how to perform integration for practical use. Instead of that work, which can certainly be tedious, the student should focus on what to do with the capability. Learn why you would integrate functions, and take the how for granted as an accomplished fact.
Yikes! I’m not that smart.
Is there Mathmatica for Dummies?
Any thoughts on Maxima for Linux?
There are many math programs available; I just scanned a table listing them which I found in Wikipedia. But from what I've seen on Wolfram's web sites, Mathematica is the real deal for doing mathematical work and documenting what was done. Your link calls Maxima an algebra program - but what about calculus? If you peruse Mathematica's site you'll see testimonials from teachers and others, and basically no limits on what you can do.I'm really impressed.
It’s used by Mathematics Professors as a Research Aid. It’s that powerful.
It’s used by Mathematics Professors as a Research Aid. It’s that powerful.
Yes. It just seems like a revolutionary tool for the application of math. And also, perhaps, for the serious study of math.
Yikes! I’m not that smart.But the more fundamental fact of mathematica is that it does the integration function symbolically, functioning in effect like a table of integrals which is complete - if a solution exists mathematica is supposed to spit it out pronto. Which moots, IMHO, the traditional study of how to perform integration for practical use
John Will just responded to my Mathematic discussion yesterday, and it got me reviewing this thread a bit. And I realized that although I responded to your #13, I had never replied to your #16 - and that that was rude of me.The problem you had was that in my thinking and writing I, retired engineer that I am, succumbed to the temptation to discuss math at a higher-than-layman level. In retrospect I see that I was being lazy. I was the one who raised the subject with you - and you therefore deserve my best effort at clarity. What I should perhaps have done is to explain that for many problems in engineering and physics it is necessary to use calculus in order to reduce the problem to one which algebra can solve.
In high school physics I learned the formulas for the position and velocity of a falling object. That can be done using algebra without calculus because the acceleration is a constant, 32.2 ft/second increase in velocity for every second that the object freely falls. But if you study a problem in which the acceleration is not constant - for example, an oscillating pendulum or a vibrating spring - calculus is required to derive the algebraic equations which relate position, velocity, and acceleration to each other and to time.
In arithmetic one learns how to multiply numbers together, and only then learns how to divide one number into another, which is the answer to the question "what number would I multiply by my divisor in order to obtain my dividend?" That is, division is what is called the "inverse" operation to multiplication. There are division problems which cannot be solved - "What is the quotient of five divided by zero?" What is the quotient of nine divided by zero?" And so forth.
Just so, in calculus one learns to take the "derivative" of an algebraic expression - and then one learns the inverse operation, which is called the "integral" of the expression. And just as division is more difficult than multiplication, finding the "integral" of an expression typically is more difficult than finding the "derivitive" of an expression. And like the division problem, there are problems in integral calculus which do not have solutions. Including, but not limited to, problems in which division by zero might be implied in the process.
So calculus produces algebra problems which can be reduced to numeric solutions to specific questions. But, primarily if not exclusively when the problem requires an integral, calculus problems can be difficult. One not infrequently resorts to tables of example solutions to the integration problem, and uses algebra and trigonometry in order to transform the problem into one whose solution is known.
So along comes the personal computer. First there is the computerized spreadsheet, which trivializes conventional arithmetic problems. Although it does nothing to facilitate the solution of the "word problem." Next came algebra programs, facilitating the manipulation algebraic equations and the solution for unknowns. Which still does nothing for the solution of "word problems." Now comes Mathematica, which solves any arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry, or calculus problem - but it still doesn't do a thing for "word problems." No matter what computer facility you have, short of having an artificial intelligence emulation of a mathematician/engineer, the "word problem" issue remains.
Arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry, calculus - before you can do anything meaningful with them, you must first
After you have done that, you can use calculus (if necessary), trigonometry (if necessary), algebra (if necessary), and finally arithmetic to derive the solution (or class of solutions) which make the issue simple.
- identify the problem, and
- convert the problem from a word problem to an arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry, or calculus problem.
It is a commonplace that a spreadsheet program can do arithmetic vastly better than a student, or even a math teacher, can.
With Mathematica the computer can do not only arithmetic but all math operations far better than any human being can do. Students should be taught arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry, and calculus - but they should learn it with the use of Mathematica as an illustrative tool - and they should learn math not for the purpose of becoming a clerk under the tutelage of Ebenezer Scrooge but for the purpose of learning why anyone would want to add, subtract, multiply, divide, and so forth. And learning how to make the computer do the grunt work.
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