The MicroMasters model MIT launched as a pilot last year to provide students a new path to a master’s degree is being adopted by 13 universities, reports Peter Coy for Bloomberg. President L. Rafael Reif explained that the MicroMasters concept is "an important project for me. I believe in the model of empowering people."
Carl Straumshein writes for Inside Higher Ed that 13 universities are adopting the MicroMasters model pioneered by MIT that provides the opportunity to obtain a master’s degree through a combination of online and on-campus courses. “We believe that a MicroMasters will start a new trend in academia,” explains edX President Anant Agarwal.
Writing for Nature, Gary Stager spotlights the work of Prof. Seymour Papert, who dedicated his career to using technology to help children learn. Stager writes that Papert “built a bridge between progressive educational traditions and the Internet age to maintain the viability of schooling, and to ensure the democratization of powerful ideas.”
Carl Straumsheim writes for Inside Higher Ed that instructor grading will be offered in an MITx philosophy MOOC this fall. “You can still achieve scale through partially automating courses, but keeping some bits of human interaction that are really important, like the interaction between you and the person you are writing a paper to,” explains Prof. Caspar Hare.
Dan Butin writes for Inside Higher Ed that MITx will begin offering students taking a popular philosophy MOOC the chance to have their work evaluated by professional philosophers. “MITx has solved a real problem in the MOOC world – of quality feedback and engagement – and has done so in a way that sustains the ability to scale,” Butin writes.
CNBC explores MIT’s history of developing alternative energy technologies and educating people around the world about sustainable energy. Graduate student Natasha Wright explains that MIT brings people together working on policy, business and technology, making it “easy to transition these technologies into the real world.”
Washington Post reporter Emily Langer chronicles the life and work of Prof. Emeritus Seymour Papert, who died last week at age 88. Langer explains that Papert “led an early campaign to revolutionize education with the personal computer, a tool he championed not as a classroom gadget but as a key to unlocking a child’s excitement for learning.”
Barb Darrow writes for Fortune about the career of Prof. Emeritus Seymour Papert, who died July 31. “In the 1960s, when computers were pricey and huge, Papert saw them as a way to help children learn by doing. He developed the Logo programming language for children, who initially used it to program and animate a small robot turtle.”
Lisa Mullins of WBUR’s All Things Considered speaks with Suzanne Massie, wife of the late Prof. Emeritus Seymour Papert, about Papert’s dedication to using technology to provide children around the world access to education. Massie notes that Papert was “the visionary who first saw the potential of the computer as an instrument of education of children.”
Prof. Emeritus Seymour Papert, a leading expert on using technology to help children learn, died on July 31, reports Glenn Rifkin for The New York Times. Prof. Mitchel Resnick notes that Papert was “the first person to see that the computer could be used to support children’s learning and development.”
Vijee Venkatraman writes for Al-Fanar about MIT’s Learning International Networks Consortium, which brought together more than 200 practitioners in the field to explore how digital technology can help people in the developing world.
Chronicle of Higher Education reporter Jeffrey Young speaks with MIT student Battushig Myanganbayar about how students taking MOOCs need greater opportunities to apply their education. President L. Rafael Reif explains that in addition to creating an entrepreneurship MOOC, MIT aims to “help the people who are learning with us learn how to think differently."
Inside Higher Ed reporter Carl Straumsheim highlights how the new Online Education Policy Initiative report stresses the central role of faculty members to online learning. Prof. Karen Willcox notes that the report discusses “ways online education can make what we do better.”
As part of the Chronicle of Higher Education’s special section on tech innovators, Jeffrey Young spotlights the work of Sanjay Sarma, vice president for open learning. Young writes that Sarma is transforming higher education “by pushing the lecture model into the margins and using technology to rethink the professor’s role.”
In a series of articles for Inside Higher Ed, Joshua Kim writes about a new report out of the MIT Online Education Policy Initiative analyzing the current state and future of higher education. Kim writes that the report, “has lots to say about the future of higher education,” adding that, “it really doesn’t get more exciting for us online learning nerds.”