Maths and Engineering high in demand

NYT special issue on graduate education;

Dr. Carnevale concludes that grad school is “the best place to ride out a recession” for those who can afford it and are young enough (under 35) to reap the long-term benefit, or who are in fields like health or social work where a master’s or certification is critical to advance. For new college graduates, he says, entering the current job market with a diminished starting salary and job description could compromise a lifelong career and earnings trajectory.

Think of grad school as a 40-year investment, Dr. Carnevale says. Over time, it can move you out of the rank and file into elite positions. The key is determining where the jobs and compensation are. Consider, in your calculation, these variables: institutional quality, tuition costs, debt incurred, and the economic outlook over all and for particular specialties. So-called opportunity costs — lost wages and possible career advancement had you stayed in the job market — also change the cost-benefit picture...

The rule of thumb for borrowing, says Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of finaid.org, is that debt should never exceed starting salary. Ideally, he adds, it should be half that.

“I’d be the last person to say not to pursue a dream,” Mr. Kantrowitz says. “But do it with your eyes open.”

Telling Students Expectations about the Course before hand

Think the following is a good idea to implement;

Students in the class are co-producers of class discussions and collective learning. For this to happen, class members need to listen carefully to one another and build on or critique prior comments. Many of you have worked in some of the companies we will be discussing or have worked with the relevant technologies. If past experience is any guide, each of you has unique insights and experiences that can help your classmates better understand the issues we are discussing. The discussion should be a conversation in which all participants recognize that they have an obligation to advance our understanding of the issue at hand. Your contributions to this learning process will be appraised in addition to the specific content that you contribute.

Because this course relies heavily on class participation for its success, class norms and expectations regarding class behavior are very important. Attendance at every class is required. Also, please come to class fully prepared to discuss the readings. I create a reading guide for each session with questions that you should review in advance and should be ready to answer.

Students who are thoroughly prepared for each session will benefit the most from this class. What's more, they add to the learning of their classmates. Hence, if you don't feel comfortable with these expectations, then this is not a good course for you to take this semester.

Bill Gates kids use Khan Academy videos

We have competition!

The most popular educator on YouTube does not have a Ph.D. He has never taught at a college or university. And he delivers all of his lectures from a bedroom closet.

This upstart is Salman Khan, a 33-year-old who quit his job as a financial analyst to spend more time making homemade lecture videos in his home studio. His unusual teaching materials started as a way to tutor his faraway cousins, but his lectures have grown into an online phenomenon—and a kind of protest against what he sees as a flawed educational system.

"My single biggest goal is to try to deliver things the way I wish they were delivered to me," he told me recently.

-College 2.0: A Self-Appointed Teacher Runs a One-Man 'Academy' on YouTube

The Great Brain Race

How Global Universities Are Reshaping the World

Jiggling Atoms and more from Richard Feynman

Games and Education

What will interactive electronic media mean for personal identity and society over the next hundred years?

Beating MIT OpenCourseWare- an interesting idea

Then, two years ago, Magliozzi started up a side project called Finalsclub.org. The site bills itself as “the premier Web portal for interactive education,” allowing Harvard students to join online study groups and read annotated versions of the Great Books. But its most notable characteristic is that it pays Harvard students to post their lecture notes online.

The website’s name was borrowed from the school’s Final Clubs - insular all-male social clubs reputed to keep old lecture notes on file to help their less diligent members cram for exams. And just like the Final Clubs’ files, the site serves as a crutch for students who haven’t bothered to attend class or take their own notes.

Magliozzi, however, insists that there’s a higher purpose. He is taking the substance of Harvard courses, information previously sequestered within the ivory tower, and offering it free to anyone with an Internet connection.

“I’m a big believer that educational resources should be free, or as free as possible, and in a sense I would like to do it not only at Harvard but at every top institution in the world,” he says.

Finalsclub is not the first website to offer elite university course notes, for free, to a wider audience - other universities, most prominently MIT, have set up so-called open courseware sites of their own, and the largest dwarf Finalsclub’s offerings. Nor is the site the first to publish student lecture notes: A mini-industry of lecture note vendors has long existed around the campuses of large state universities, and it has migrated online in recent years.

But in combining the two - by relying on students, rather than professors, for material and then posting it for free - Finalsclub, along with a few larger sites like GradeGuru and StudyBlue, raise issues of their own. Because the site does not charge, the material Finalsclub posts is widely available, and, unlike with open courseware programs like MIT’s, Harvard has little say in the process.

-Does anyone own what universities teach?

Interesting Ideas

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If you could change your life;

I'm offering an apprenticeship/not-internship/graduate school/charm school track-changing opportunity to a few people this winter. It's free, it's fairly audacious and I hope you'll check it out. It might not be for you (in fact, it probably isn't) but I have no doubt that you know people who might be interested.

I'm convinced that there are people out there who--given the right teaching, encouragement and opportunity--can change the world. I'm hoping you can prove me right. You don't have much time and there are only a few slots, so if you're even flirting with this idea, check out the lens here.