
How Web-Savvy Edupunks Are Transforming American Higher Education - maurycy
http://www.fastcompany.com/node/1325728/print
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kareemm
I co-founded (and since left) eduFire, one of the companies mentioned in the
sidebar to this article:

[http://origin-www.fastcompany.com/magazine/138/5-startups-
to...](http://origin-www.fastcompany.com/magazine/138/5-startups-to-
watch.html)

It's amazing to see how many people have become aware of the massive
opportunity to revolutionize education since we started eduFire in Jan 07. In
07, the institutions weren't going to innovate, most VCs (esp Bay area folks)
had no idea about the size of the edu opportunity or customer willingness to
pay.

Two years later we've got USV's hackedu conference, articles in FC, edu reform
making the national agenda, and all kinds of interesting edu companies being
funded. Interesting times!

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briancooley
Seems like the most important aspect of higher education from a student's
perspective is the community you build while you are there. Nothing stimulates
thought like being surrounded by intelligent, motivated individuals.

Social interaction over the internet is becoming richer, and surely it will
play a vital role in changing the face of education. My fear is that the
credentials-based hiring practices that are rampant among employers will
pervert what could otherwise be a useful extension of quality education to the
masses.

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martincmartin
How is "open content" more revolutionary than textbooks? In other words, why
hasn't e.g. the widespread availability of math textbooks lead to a revolution
in math education, putting price pressure on a math degree from, say, Harvard
or U. Chicago?

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aik
Good point. Few thoughts that inspire people to get into it and could lead to
a revolution: 1\. Textbooks are fairly static unlike websites 2\. Websites are
more easily accessible 3\. Books are boring to most people 4\. Websites are
not

Why your point is interesting to me: The main problem in my opinion is the
lack of interest in learning in general. Until a learning method appears that
will actually inspire people to want to learn, no change will take place.

