There has been an interesting shift in online education in the last few years; entrepreneurial-minded academics are starting their own free online schools such as Udacity and Coursera, major universities are offering free courses online or sharing their materials via YouTube or iTunesU. The Khan Academy has become wildly popular, TED has even jumped into the game by launching TED Ed, and there are countless other avenues through which students can now pursue a free online education. It is common knowledge that, "if something seems too good to be true, it probably is." So what’s the catch with these free online opportunities? Are they really too good to be true or can they be profitable to those offering them as well as beneficial to the rest of society?

(Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, 2002)

To Profit or Not to Profit? That is the Question
Salman Khan has been very upfront about the not-for-profit nature of the Khan Academy (Salmon, 12 Jan., 2012), and the funding that it has received thus far has come entirely from donations and grant funding from entities such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Google’s Project 10 to the 100 award. Interestingly, Khan reports in the Khan Academy FAQ that he quit his job as a hedge fund manager in September of 2009 and was living off of his savings while he created the Khan Academy, essentially because it was a good thing to do (About Khan Academy).

Udacity, in contrast, is a stock offering, for-profit corporation based in the Silicon Valley. It is, however, a company that does not make any money. In an interview with Felix Salmon for Reuters, Udacity founder Sebastian Thrun was very forthcoming about the reasons why he chose to start Udacity as a for-profit, rather than a not-for-profit in the Khan mold. In the interview he states, "[being] for profit is not forced to make profit. I needed to get people together really fast, and it’s much easier to do that under the ways of a Silicon Valley company." (Salmon, 12 Jan., 2012). So the fact that Udacity is technically a for-profit company does not, in practice provide a distinction between it and The Khan Academy.  So why did Thrun leave Stanford to start Udacity and, more importantly, will it turn into a profit-making entity at some point?

This is a complex issue, and I recommend reading Salmon’s entire article in Reuters to get the whole story, but the thumbnail version is that Thrun actually left Stanford to continue working for Google (he was out of leave time) and that he started Udacity independent of Stanford largely because of Stanford’s unwillingness to offer formal credits for their free online courses.  Is Thrun expecting that Udacity will eventually turn in to a moneymaker? Salmon provides insight into this question as well:

"Udacity seems to be built on the standard VC model of get scale first, worry about monetizing it later. And if Udacity does end up with millions of students, I should imagine that there are quite a lot of companies which would pay Udacity to be able to reach those students. Simply charging technology companies to put job opportunities in front of students with given grades and qualifications would probably generate quite hefty fees. So long as the education itself remains free, I don’t think that being a for-profit is in and of itself a bad thing."

Thrun’s expectations in this endeavor are unclear, but there is potential that, given the success of Udacity’s first round of classes, it will eventually make money. However, profit does not seem to be Thrun’s primary motivation for starting the company. His real motivation, as with Khan, is altruism, and that is a hopeful sign not only for education, but for humanity.

How Do You Measure Success?
Working in education and seeing the constant assault against an institution that has making humanity better as its primary function has made me skeptical that there is any good left in the world worth fighting for.  But seeing successful individuals such as Khan and Thrun abandoning positions that would provide them with lifelong security in order to make the world a better place for everyone in a "me first" age that would make Gordon Gekko cringe, is encouraging. I am reminded of the Sam Gamgee’s speech at the end of the Two Towers film:

“But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something. . . That there’s some good in this world and its worth fighting for.”
-Samwise Gamgee (Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, 2002)

At heart I am still an optimist, and I really do believe that there is something good in this world worth fighting for. I am happy to see innovative thinkers like Khan and Thrun leading the fight to make education accessible to all.

Share your optimism about the future of free online learning at Google+ or on Twitter @drjwmarquis

1. Take advantage of open source and courseware

   Learn for free via resources like iTunes U, YouTube EDU, Open Culture, MIT Open Courseware, and many, many more examples of open source and courseware. These free (or low-cost, in some cases) offerings provide everything from overviews to entire classes for self-motivated learners wanting to pick up pretty much any subject imaginable. Run searches for a particular area of interest (along with “open source” or “open coursework,” of course) and see what all is available.

2. Set clear, attainable goals

   Because self-directed learning doesn’t involve a formalized syllabus, it’s up to the individuals themselves to whip up their own solid goals. Realistic, solid goals, of course. Make sure to outline what all needs to be done in order to achieve them and allow for some flexibility. And after crossing off the first round, start establishing more challenging follow-ups. Let them grow off one another in order to receive the most comprehensive look at the subject possible.

3. Library membership

   Along with providing excellent supplements to open courseware classes, public libraries (and academic ones) often hold free or cheap classes on a wide variety of subjects — usually related to hobbies and computers. While they might not necessarily go as in-depth as those taught in a more formal setting, they can kick-start intense self-learning and open themselves up to other strategies and perspectives. A library card stretches quite a bit, so take advantage of what the local system has to offer when embarking on an independent educational voyage.

4. Self-assessment

   Teachers don’t set goals for self-learners, meaning they certainly can’t measure just how well the content sank in through tests. So the effective solo student needs to know how to assess a skill set before moving on to the next lesson. Tie them in with what you ultimately hope to accomplish for the best results. Many open courseware programs, particularly those offered through colleges and universities, come bundled with their own tests, but they might not necessarily line up with the patron’s personal goals.

5. Be realistic

   Just like more “traditional” learning spaces, the self-guided classroom will inevitably hit some snags, whether expected or not. Before jumping into a new subject or hobby, understand that the reality and the fantasy likely won’t align. Some facets might prove entirely too difficult to fully grasp. Sometimes emergencies crop up and disrupt the flow of learning. Just go with what life has in store — sticking to a rigid schedule will only inspire stress and anxiety when one should be feeling interested and engaged.

6. Be self-aware

   This tip obviously ties into facing self-learning with a realistic outlook. Analyzing your strengths and weaknesses beforehand will prevent the metaphorical biting off more than you can chew, making the whole process less nerve-wracking. Bumps will still crop up on occasion, but courses will still go on far more smoothly if you know where your limits sit — or put forth the effort to challenge them, fail, and accept that they either require some other stimuli to change or aren’t exactly negotiable.

7. Time management skills

   Self-learning requires as much of a time commitment as the individual allots, from minutes to hours a day. Keeping to a schedule and minimizing distractions will help the material ingrain itself more efficiently. Virginia Tech recommends writing down the week’s major events and goals as a viable strategy for sticking to a more definitive timeline. The school also thinks managing it like a to-do list is also a great idea, as striking out completed tasks makes it even easier to see what’s been done and what still needs doing.

8. Motivation

   Obviously, the fact that you’re even interested in self-learning in the first place denotes some degree of motivation already. Sticking with an educational regimen is another thing entirely. Find what drives you best of all and apply it to a brand new undertaking. Pick The Brain believes staying upbeat and navigating through goals with flexibility, clarity, and a knack for keeping yourself going builds the confidence needed to press forward on a project and hopefully succeed at it.

9. Get some rest

   New York University researchers made note of the relationship between rest and memory, which the savvy self-learner should heed. Taking time out for relaxation (not necessarily involving sleep) bolsters the mind and makes it easier to retain information. When a self-learning session grows too overwhelming, pause and engage in something low-key instead. Yes, even if it hasn’t been scheduled. Doing so will serve as a refresher, making more difficult undertakings a little bit easier afterward.

10. Go mobile

    If finances allow (of course!), set up learning sessions on the go with smartphones and tablet PCs. With so many free and low-cost apps available — not to mention browser capability — self-motivated learners have plenty of resources for supplements and full courses alike. Try TED and eHow as a broad start, and run searches for more subject-specific goodies. Don’t forget all of the useful productivity apps out there, too!

11. Eat brain food

    Keeping with a brain-healthy diet, like the one outlined by Dr. Mehmet Oz, keeps the most essential organ as balanced as it can be — a necessity for self-motivated learners. Operating at peak efficiency increases the cognitive functions essential to absorbing and retaining the lessons at hand. In addition, it fosters better mental health, which boasts some all-around benefits beyond the academic.

12. Exercise

    Engaging in some form of physical activity keeps more than just the heart healthy; the brain also receives the exercise it needs to best process every bit of external stimuli. Aerobic activities in particular sharpen those cognitive abilities, and when paired with a nutritious diet, make a body well-primed for learning inside and outside the “traditional” classroom setting. If you feel too energetic to rest in between sessions, consider taking a walk or a run instead.

13. Challenge yourself

    The Daily Beast’s Sharon Begley rightfully points out that no universal approach toward cognitive boosting has been discovered; even exercise and diet can harbor exceptions. But she explains that one of the more effective strategies involves learning new skills, which seems to nurse neuroplasticity better than focusing on ones already in place. Putting forth the effort to try something different physiologically alters the brain, according to her research, making it expand and capable of picking up even more information.

14. “Outside-the-box” thinking

    Literally thinking “outside the box.” The old cliche about creativity boasts some basis in reality, come to find out, as 2011 research conducted on NYU students proved. Those with the more unorthodox approaches to the tasks at hand usually sat outside the assigned cubicle, leading researchers to wonder if confined spaces lead to confined thinking. Not every strategy works for every self-learner, of course, but it might be one to consider when searching for innovative solutions.

15. Tune out negativity

    All self-learners need to stay realistic, of course, but be warned of lurching too far into cynicism. Stay upbeat and positive when studying and realize that no shame exists in stopping a session — or even the equivalent of a full course! — if it simply proves too much to handle. Walk away knowing yourself and your abilities a little better than before; and remember nothing says you can’t pick up and try again later!

My response to this was that doing a simple walkthrough of the interface suited my purpose as an accompaniment for the blog post mentioned above as the post examined TED Ed as a classroom resource rather than as a content creation tool. But I was intrigued, so I assured tededlogan that I would follow up with a screencast of how to use the full power of the medium. Here is the resulting video and a step-by-step how-to guide for anyone interested in creating their own flipped lesson on TED Ed.

Step 1: Create a Ted Ed account and log in at ed.ted.com

Step 2: Locate the YouTube Video you are going to use as the basis for your lesson and copy the URL into your clipboard.

Step 3: Go to the "Flip any Video From YouTube" page on Ted Ed by clicking the word "YouTube" at the top of the page and enter the URL in the search box. Then press "Search." Note to TED ED: it is not clear that the "YouTube" link is the portal to flipping lessons.

Step 4: Press the thumbnail representation of the video you have selected. A pop-up window will appear showing the video. Press the "Flip This Video" button below the video.

Step 5: A new Page with "Create Your Lesson" at the top of the screen will open. It is time to begin flipping the lesson. If you haven’t already, this is the time to plan out the content for your video. I suggest writing questions and compiling resources in a word processing program before you begin.

Step 6: In the box next to "Let’s Begin…" enter the lesson description (100 character max)

Step 7: Once you have entered your description, click on the word "Think" to the right of the video. A blank space will replace the video which is labeled "+ Create Your Own Question." Type a question that you would like your learners to consider after watching the video.

Add as many questions as you need to guide learners in thinking about the video they have watched.

Step 8: When you have finished entering your questions, click on the words "Dig Deeper" below "Think" to enter resources that your students can access to further their understanding of the issue being considered.

You can add hyperlinks in this section by selecting text then clicking the "Add a Link" button above the text field, then entering the URL and title for the link, then pushing "Insert."

Step 9: After adding all of your enrichment information to the "Dig Deeper" section, add some closing thoughts for your students by clicking on "…And Finally" (150 character max).

Step 10: Click on the "Preview" button to check out your lesson. When you are satisfied, click "Publish." Note that you will not be able to further edit your lesson once it has been published.

That’s it. You have now successfully "Flipped a Lesson" on Ted Ed. You can view this lesson on Jane McGonigal’s idea of how video games can save the world here: http://ed.ted.com/on/T137SqxX

I find the interface to be quite easy to use and give TED Ed a hearty endorsement as a vehicle for harnessing the vast array of resources available on YouTube to create some engaging lessons. However, there are still limitations to the site that will need to be addresses if it is to become truly useful to teachers. For example, why aren’t the "Think" questions cued to specific parts of the video or accessible during playback? Additionally, there should be social media integration, collaborative tools, and a way for teachers to share and curate videos they like.

This is a great start for a beta release, but still has some room for improvement in the next iteration, as I pointed out in my previous post on TED Ed.

Follow me on Google+ or Twitter @drjwmarquis

The Problem with Education for All
I agree enthusiastically with President Obama’s idea that everyone should have the opportunity to pursue higher education if they are interested in doing so. I also firmly believe that education should be affordable enough, or better yet, free, so that everyone can pursue it without risking their financial future. In my recent posts, Imagining a Sustainable Model of Higher Education, and It’s Time for an "All of the Above" Education Policy, I proposed a re-envisioning of the American education system which incorporates a mixed model that would allow students to cobble together their credentials by drawing on all possible sources of learning from traditional universities to DIY education, and everything in between.

Implementing a system like this, while also opening education to a larger audience, could also potentially create a degree hierarchy ranging from the strict DIY degree to the elite, Ivy League education. Allowing for the possibility of "All of the Above" education does not constrain anyone from choosing to pursue their education through traditional channels. It cannot if it is going to be successful, but the issue that arose in my class regarding new types of degrees, was whether some of them would be more valuable ("better," in my students’ words) than others when it came time to get a job. Here are some of the reasons that opening up education to a larger audience may or may not ultimately create a stratification of American society based on type of education an individual has. You can decide for yourself whether you think it will happen or not.

Reasons that Stratification Might Happen

• It’s already here – It may or may not actually be true, but a particular brand name on your diploma is perceived to equate to the quality of your education, and consequently your value to the workforce. Popular belief is that having an Ivy League education opens more doors to prestigious, higher-paying jobs (Lorenz, 26 Jan., 2009). The converse is also true. For example, people do not value a degree earned online as much as a comparable degree earned at a brick and mortar (Columbaro & Monaghan, 2009). While much evidence indicates that there is no significant difference between these two types of degrees, the public and business world perceptions are that there is. This perception is only likely to increase if other, even less mainstream educational options become part of the credentialing process.
• Natural competitiveness – It is human nature to want to self-differentiate in order to draw distinctions between groups that you are a part of and those that you are not. As UCLA researcher Marilynn Brewer states, "individuals avoid self-construals that are either too personalized or too inclusive and instead define themselves in terms of distinctive category memberships. Social identity and group loyalty are hypothesized to be strongest for those self-categorizations that simultaneously provide for a sense of belonging and a sense of distinctiveness." (1991) This human need to belong to small homogeneous groups could well play out in a significant way if there are easy to perceive differences between different levels or types of credentials.
• Potential lack of buy-in by businesses – This is still speculative, but if businesses do not accept alternative forms of credentialing, such as Digital Badges, as equivalent to traditional classroom education, then the very concept of new models of higher education might never get off the ground. If it does, and businesses still won’t accept those credentials as equivalent to formal education, then anyone possessing such a degree would remain unqualified for positions despite their qualifications. This may lead to a need for job hunters to do some self-marketing of their experiences in the early years of non-traditional credentialing.
• We live in a class-based society – People may not want to admit it, but we live in a society with fairly rigid and impermeable class divisions. According to some researchers such as Jean Anyon and Pierre Bourdieu, education is one of the vehicles for maintaining that separation (Brantlinger, The Politics of Social Class in Secondary School, 1993).  There is a real danger that creating further distinctions between the types of education that people have will exacerbate this class system. This is what I see as the most significant obstacle to education for everyone – that while everyone could be educated, the type of education received  would, in turn, cause greater class separations – essentially creating an education-based caste system.

Reasons that Stratification Might Not Happen

• The democratizing power of technology – I have a lot of faith in technology to help reform society and education. In the past few years alone there have been new innovations springing up on a weekly basis that aim to create a more just and equitable society. Efforts like Digital Badges, MITx, Udacity, the Khan Academy, the Minerva Project, and many others have taken aim at creating educational opportunities for everyone regardless of socio-economic status or geographic location. These efforts, coupled with powerful social media tools for sharing information and educational opportunities such as Twitter, Facebook, MentorMob, etc., could have a profound effect on both enhancing the public perception of non-traditional credentialing and making it more widely accepted.
• The philanthropic nature of people – Salman Khan quit his job on Wall Street to begin Khan Academy to provide free educational materials to everyone; Sebastian Thrun gave up his tenure at Stanford to start Udacity, offering college-level education for free; Bill and Melinda Gates have given millions of dollars to support free alternative education startups; The MacArthur Foundation supports digital badges; and MIT, Harvard and other universities are offering some of their curriculum for free online. There have always been people interested in the public good, and the Internet now makes their efforts very public and spreads their messages of educational opportunity across the globe. If these efforts reach a critical mass, they could tip the balance of education towards making alternative, DIY-style education the norm rather than the exception. If the entire system changes, then the debate about which type of education is better becomes irrelevant.
• Public awareness of the issues – The Occupy Movement has brought issues of economic, social, and educational inequality to the forefront of the public consciousness. While the occupy movement seems to have faltered somewhat during the winter, there are signs that it will blossom this spring to continue to push for greater equality in society on all fronts. This is a real issue and one that does not seem likely to go away, particularly during a presidential election year.

Conclusions?
It would be a serious blow to societal equality if diversifying what education looks like eventually leads to an educational caste system. We need fewer social and economic divisions rather than more and education should be a tool for removing class distinctions rather than increasing them.  This is an issue that is unlikely to sort itself out on its own. As a society, we need to be vigilant about making sure that divergent educational paths do not lead to a greater divide in society. One way to begin ensuring that this doesn’t happen is to make education of all types an easily affordable and attainable goal for everyone.

Join the debate on Twitter @drjwmarquis or Google+

Image: scottchan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

1. Yoga:

   Studies have found that most people sit seven to nine hours a day. That isn’t likely to change soon, so you need a game plan to undo the negative effects so much sitting has on your body. Knowing yoga or a similar type of stretch routine is pretty much a must.

2. Googling:

   You have the collective knowledge of the world at your fingertips with this web search engine. The flip-side of that coin is, that’s a massive amount of info to sort through if you don’t know how to search efficiently.

3. Seeing through online scams:

   From not clicking certain ads to not opening emails from rich Nigerian princes, the ability to protect yourself from Internet scammers is a must for anyone using the web in the 21st century.

4. Cooperating with a diverse set of coworkers:

   As society becomes more open-minded and there are more equal opportunities for people, it is necessary to be comfortable working with employees of a wide range of sexual preferences, ethnicities, religious beliefs, and physical abilities.

5. Listening:

   Hand-in-hand with empathizing with people comes listening to them and their opinions. Thus, mastering the art of emphatic listening involves giving the speaker your undivided attention and refraining from judgment.

6. Focusing:

   Having the ability to focus on one task is only going to become more difficult with the ability to access media and telecommunications from anywhere.

7. Spotting a deal:

   A penny saved is a penny earned, but it does no good to be penny-wise and pound-foolish. Coupons from sites like Groupon may seem like big money-savers, but the devil is in the details. You have to know what pitfalls to look for to make them work for you.

8. Unlearning:

   In an ever-changing technological environment, in the words of writer Alvin Toffler, "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."

9. Maintaining your online image:

   As our lives become digitized and move to the cloud, keeping your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Monster, Google+, and other online accounts updated and not incriminating will help you land jobs and make contacts.

10. Being comfortable asking questions:

    On a personal level, each of us needs to be secure enough to seek answers to questions we have about anything and everything that’s new to us. In a broader sense, the best way to move forward as a society is for people to look at the way things are and ask how they can be improved.

11. Being authentic:

    Everyone is tired of phonies. If a company says it’s organic, people want to know it really is. Even celebrities are trying to earn their titles, instead of just being paid mouthpieces. Just being real is key to succeeding in the new economy.

12. Knowing your niche:

    The 21st-century economy is a tough economy, and there’s competition for every job. What you must do is figure out what you excel at and what people need, and zero in on that.

13. Personal branding:

    Being the best at something does no good unless you are known for being the best, and that means knowing how to market yourself. In the 21st century, this means taking advantage of every social medium out there.

14. Behaving with integrity:

    The backlash against business leaders and people with no integrity has already begun. The public mood is already shifting toward seeking out businesses to deal with that are operated by honest people. You’ll want to be one of those honest people.

15. Managing money:

    Unless you’re in the 1%, there’s never been an economy conducive to throwing your money away. But in a bad economy, you have to be hyper-vigilant about where your "spending leaks" are and where you could be cutting corners.

16. Investing:

    People who lost much or all of their savings in the stock market crash of 2008 learned the hard way that putting all your eggs in one basket is never a good idea. Know what investments are a good hedge, like bonds or commodities like gold.

17. Being able to turn the computer off:

    Telecommuting is the wave of the future, and people’s homes will be doubling as their office buildings. A successful personal life will mean knowing when to draw the line on work time and transition to off-duty time.

18. Meditating:

    Whether you call it meditating, praying, or thinking happy thoughts, the benefits of relaxing your mind for a few moments or many. And in our stressful lives in a troubled economy, there’s never been a time to learn how to do it.

19. Political organizing:

    If you’ve been living on the moon, social movements have been the story of this decade so far. Politicians have their super PACs, corporations have their lobbying firms, but we the people have to know how to organize each other to make our voices heard in this economy.

20. Interviewing:

    The numbers prove that people are leaving their jobs faster and more frequently than in the past, often because the economy forced companies to decrease benefits or work employees harder. Thus, we all need to get used to applying for new jobs regularly, and that means knowing how to shine in an interview.

21. Keeping your weight down:

    By 2018, obesity-related health care will cost the U.S. more than $340 billion, or 21% of health care spending. Companies are also starting to feel the burn from employees’ unhealthy lifestyles. For the overall well-being of the country, your company, and most importantly, yourself, get yourself in shape.

Well, as promised in his reply, Anderson and TED Ed announced the beta version of Ted Ed and the "Flip This Lesson" functionality in late April. Here is a look at the beta version of the site to see if the updated concept comes closer to meeting the high standards I set for it as a meaningful platform for teachers to use in the classroom.

What You Get When You "Flip This Lesson"
Playing on the recent "Flipped Classroom" craze popularized by the Khan Academy, Anderson and the TED Ed team have stepped into the fray with a platform that allows educators to remix TED videos to supplement them with additional content. Here is what it looks like:

The new platform allows some nice enhancements of TED videos. In fact, it now seems quite a bit like the Khan Academy – which is not surprising since Salman Khan is listed as one of the contributors to the project. In addition to using the platform with any YouTube video, you can take an interactive quiz associated with the video, "Think" about the video, "Dig Deeper" into the content of the video, "…And Finally," leave your students with something to ponder. Here is a bit more about each new feature:

• Open Content – The ability to plug any YouTube video into the "Flip This Lesson" platform is a really nice feature that allows teachers to develop flipped lessons around any video they might find on YouTube or to create their own that they can then use the platform to enhance. Though not yet available, this really is a fantastic feature and one that might help with ushering in the future of the flipped classroom.
• Interactive Quizzes – This is a nice concept, but in my attempt to flip a lesson on my own I was limited to only the pre-determined questions that were set in advance. Perhaps this will change when the platform is finalized. It would have to if teachers are actually going to be allowed to upload their own videos or flip non-TED YouTube videos into lessons. According to the press release, there will also be a function which allows teachers to track student progress. If this proves to be similar to the robust tools in Khan Academy, it will be an excellent feature.
• "Think" – This feature gives students the capability to share their thoughts about the content and was fully customizable when I tried to flip the lesson. This is a nice feature to allow for reflection on the content or to provide an opportunity for the teacher to prompt deeper thinking.
• "Dig Deeper" – This is a catch-all category where the instructor can add enrichment links or activities. It is very open right now and might benefit from some more structure and a more robust interface beyond just adding text and links. What about assignments sheets and the possible need to print things out? Minor tweaks, but important.
• "…And Finally" – This is just a blank space for instructor thoughts or ideas to ponder. This space seems superfluous as it can easily be incorporated into the "Dig Deeper" section.  It also only allows for 150 characters, so it might as well contain a social media plug-in that allows for an actual Twitter conversation.

Checking My List of TED Ed Suggestions
In my original article on TED Ed I suggested five features that I would like to see in the final version of the platform. Here’s how the beta version of Ted Ed stacks up to my ideal model.

• Linked resources – TED Ed beta meets this criterion to a limited extent through the "Think" section which allows teachers some flexibility in including additional resources for student enrichment. But there is no area in which resources can be shared to help other teachers implement these flipped lessons with their own students.
• Social collaboration for lesson development – This is a feature that is not present, but one which would be extremely useful for teachers. There is no reason that a single teacher needs to be solely responsible for flipping a lesson when they could be supported in collaborating with their colleagues to make the entire process less of a burden.
• Associated discussions of lessons – Currently there is no dedicated space for teachers or students to discuss the lessons or post questions that they might have.
• Curation /sharing of lessons – This is where the model seems like it is going to work, but falls short. It appears that every lesson that gets flipped could be shared publically by clicking on "Flips," but this is not the case. Right now only the pre-made content is shared publically and teachers can flip that content, but they cannot view the efforts of their colleagues. This limitation isolates teachers when the platform could be used to bring them together.
• Full lessons available – Each of the flipped lessons that I looked at was a stand-alone mini lesson and none contained support to help teachers integrate the TED Ed content into a larger lesson or unit. While these are very interesting videos, it would help teachers much more to have guidance on how they can be used in the broader classroom context and how they tie in to state and national education standards.

Overall, what the platform lacks is a "behind the scenes" area where teachers can collaborate on their flipped lessons. The beta version of TED Ed seems to be aiming to create publicly viewable, finished products rather than serving as a platform for teacher collaboration and innovation. In a recent poll of teachers by Scholastic and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation  (Primary Sources: 2012), teachers stated that one of the things they most wanted in education was more time for collaboration. TED Ed is a perfect vehicle for meeting that need virtually, which would allow for teachers to collaborate with other educators around the world.

So Chris, I’m sorry to say that so far, TED Ed is not living up to my hopes for it, but I’m sure you’ll get there – TED is, after all, all about innovation.

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I have recently written about MITx, Coursera, and Udacity as "Education Road Warriors," all with mighty ambitions to save the world through their online course offerings, but all lacking an ability to teach innovative thinking through their platforms, and thus all being unable to really change the future of education. edX, is taking a different approach to changing the world through online education – they are going to study it and learn from it as they try to change it. Just like those other efforts mentioned, those behind edX are ambitiously planning to offer free education to anyone around the world who has an Internet connection, hoping to eventually reach one billion people.

Where edX differs from previous efforts is in their transparent, upfront intention to actively conduct research on their courses and learners and to apply the information that they gain to change not only their online offerings, but all of education. At the press conference to announce the project, Anant Agarwal, edX president and MIT Computer Science professor, Harvard University President Drew Faust, and MIT President Susan Hockfield discussed their ambitious plans for changing the future of higher education:

Video streaming by Ustream
On-campus research will help researchers at MIT and Harvard learn more about teaching and learning online and apply what they find to enhancing how they teach their residential students and to education in general. As Faust states in the video, they plan to "increase access to education and strengthen teaching and learning." (http://www.edxonline.org/) Those behind edX are planning a formal research effort to support their global education effort, but what are they likely to learn? Here are five possible research avenues for the project and what they are likely to find.

What edX Will Teach Us About E-learning and Higher Ed
While the formal research agenda behind edX is currently unavailable, here are five things that the researchers at MIT and Harvard are likely to find through their research into the ways in which technology can enhance higher education.

1. Students like learning with technology – The most obvious, but probably most important, finding will be that students prefer to learn basic content asynchronously outside of the classroom. This is not news to former Stanford University professor and Udacity founder Sebastian Thrun who reported that his students stopped attending class in person at Stanford when he started posting videos of his lectures online for his hugely popular artificial intelligence course (Marquis, 2012). The implications for the formalization of this discovery will be an opening of the floodgates for recorded content in higher education and more "flipping" of the university classroom. It makes sense for all parties. If students prefer to pause and rewind their professors while they absorb content in the academic quad, their dorm rooms, or wherever else strikes their fancy, why not let them? On the other hand, allowing professors to record the core content of their lectures will free them to pursue other avenues in classes such as research and other activities that actively engage students with the content.
2. Gamification works – If edX really reaches out to incorporate courses from other universities, they will eventually start researching game-based courses. When they do, they are likely to find that, not only are these classes more engaging and that students like them, but also that they are extremely effective vehicles for learning. Further, unlike other “canned content,” game-based online education has a greater potential to support innovative thinking, because the medium is designed to create an adaptive user experience. Games can be programmed to present learners with problems and require innovate solutions in order to progress through the program.
3. Peer-enabled learning is very effective – As MIT president Susan Hockfield explained during the edX press conference, during the MITx initial course offering, Circuits and Electronics, spontaneous social networks formed among the 120,000 participants that allowed students to engage with each other and demonstrate a surprising tendency for peer tutoring. This will ultimately prove to be the most surprising finding of the edX research as it will reveal that a new paradigm for education is emerging that parallels the current trend towards social construction of knowledge demonstrated through Wikipedia. This concept could eventually lead to a self-sustaining model for higher education in which students take ownership of helping to teach their peers (Marquis, 1 May, 2012).
4. Time is a variable – In a post-industrial society there is no need for education to be constrained to a set duration of time. The edX research should reveal that students all work at different paces and learn material well in different sequences. Technologically-enhanced learning can make education intimately individualized. Students can progress through individual courses or even their entire education careers at different paces if the paradigm of education changes in a way which allows this. edX may reveal that breaking free of the Pavlovian education mentality makes learning more enjoyable and effective for everyone.
5. Teaching innovation isn’t easy – While the edX website states "It will move beyond the standard model of online education that relies on watching video content and will offer an interactive experience for students," (edX FAQ) that remains to be seen. With the ambitious goal of reaching 1 billion learners, it is going to be extremely challenging for edX to provide an interactive experience for all of them. The key to an effort like this, and my main criticism of the efforts that have come before it, is that mass-produced education cannot, by definition teach innovation. There is hope that, if the peer tutoring model becomes embedded in the edX model, that there will be potential for having students engage in the kinds of experiences that foster creative thinking and innovation. On the surface, however, it is theoretically impossible to provide this kind of experience to a massive number of users simultaneously.

Research Conclusions
These five points have been entirely based on conjecture about what the researchers at MIT and Harvard will be looking for and what they are likely to find if they ask the right questions. I am more hopeful about this effort than I am about MITx, Coursera, and Udacity because of the preconception that edX is not a finished product, but rather a vehicle for learning as much as for teaching. In an age of rapid technological change, beginning from the point of knowing that you will need to learn from your efforts is a very sound way to begin a project of this ambition. Bravo!

Mr. Kozol hasn’t written a book since 2007 — even the most dedicated activists and educators grow old — but there has been little change for the better in the poorest schools in this country since then. In fact, with the recent economic downturn, conditions are likely to have gotten worse in many of them. In keeping with the spirit of Kozol’s work to shed light on the plight of students and teachers laboring under terrible conditions, here is a look at the 10 poorest schools in the U.S.

1. East St. Louis, Illinois, Tomorrow’s Builders Charter School.

   Half a century ago, East St. Louis was a prospering and growing community but in the decades since, the city has been in a slow and steady decline that has left it dangerous and desperate. Its schools haven’t been left unscathed during this process, and Tomorrow’s Builders Charter School is no exception. It was ranked as the worst performing public high school in the U.S. by Neighborhood Scout and with good reason: none of the school’s 181 students were proficient in math and just 3% were proficient in reading. Located in a deeply impoverished community, the school has few resources to improve and is battling against one of the highest violent crime rates in the U.S. and rampant gang activity. Today, four in 10 residents of East St. Louis live below the poverty line, two out of five children are born to a teenager, and just under half of the city’s children drop out of school before the age of 15. Amid this environment, it’s no mystery why schools like Tomorrow’s Builders suffer, and with little tax revenue coming in from the surrounding community, reform is a long, slow, and often frustrating process.

2. Albany, Georgia, Albany High School.

   It shouldn’t come as a surprise that an Albany-area school would rank as one of the poorest in the nation, as the community itself is one of the most deeply impoverished both within the state and in the U.S. as a whole. The city has been hit hard by unemployment due to several large businesses choosing to relocate elsewhere, and the resulting 11% unemployment rate has contributed to 27.7% of residents living below the poverty line, the fifh highest poverty level in the U.S. Schools in the area have felt the pinch of this economic turmoil as well, and Albany High School has been hit especially hard, making the Georgia State Department of Education’s list of the worst-performing schools. Just this year, the school was awarded a School Improvement Grant through the U.S. Department of Education, and with this additional funding, hopefully students at Albany High will see improvements in the coming years.

3. Brownsville, Texas, Porter High School.

   The Brownsville School District is one of the poorest in the nation, with 94% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunches district-wide. The city itself has the highest poverty level in the nation, with 36.3% of its residents living at or below the poverty line and a whopping 12.5% without a job. Because Brownsville is a border town, many Porter High School students are recent immigrants and 43% are still learning English. While the community might be poor and the schools may have extremely limited resources, test scores are holding steady in this community. In fact, the school district was recently awarded the $1 million dollar Broad Prize for Urban Education for making academic advances, a sum that will be divided up between the district’s seniors for college scholarships. Porter High is part of this surprising level of achievement, as its students did well on standardized tests, with proficiencies of 70% in math, 79% in reading, 77% in science, and 95% in social studies.

4. Chicago, Illinois, Paul Robeson High School.

   Chicago’s South Side boasts some of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the United States, with gang violence claiming the lives of dozens of high school and middle school students each year. The city’s Robeson High School, located in the infamous Englewood neighborhood, ranks among the lowest performing schools in the U.S., according to data from Neighborhood Scout, with just 2% proficient in reading and 5% in math. It’s not the only school on the South Side to make the list, with Harper High School and Englewood Technical Prep also bringing in pitifully low scores. Robeson’s poor performance and budgetary issues may be due to where the school is located, as Englewood is one of the poorest Chicago neighborhoods. According to City-Data.com 43% of Englewood residents live below the poverty line and the median income is just $22,131. Making things even harder on this already struggling school? About 31% of the school’s students are coming from single-parent homes and the neighborhood led the city in homicides last year, with a large number of both the perpetrators and the victims being high school students.

5. Reading, Pennsylvania, Reading Senior High School:

   Reading has made headlines recently, but not in any way the struggling city would like to do so. Recent Census Bureau data revealed it as the poorest city in America, with the largest share of residents living in poverty for a city of its size, a figure that stands at a staggering 41.3%. In decline for the past decade, the city slipped into despair with the departure of the major industries that had helped to sustain it, and the education system is reflecting these struggles. At Reading Senior High School, almost 89% of students qualify for free or reduced lunches, up from just 44% in 2003. The economic woes of the community haven’t helped test scores, either, with only 27% of students performing at a proficient level in math and 43% in reading. Frustration with the school system may be part of the reason this school has such high drop-out rates, with a distressing 50% of students leaving school before getting their diplomas.

6. Beecher, Michigan, Beecher High School:

   If you’ve ever seen Michael Moore’s film Roger & Me, you have a pretty good idea of the havoc unemployment and poverty have wrecked on the once-prosperous industrial city of Flint. Beecher, a small township on the edges of the city, has been hit even harder, which may be hard to do as the poverty rate in Flint is currently at 21% with unemployment at 18.1% as of January 2012, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Beecher, by comparison, has a staggering 45% of its residents living in poverty. The overall economic sluggishness of Flint and the surrounding areas has made it hard for schools to bring in much revenue, and many, like Beecher High School, are struggling. The school was recently ranked among the worst performing schools in the state, a fact that may be largely related to money: 82% of the school district’s students live below the poverty line.

7. Detroit, Michigan, Central High School:

   Detroit has been a city in turmoil for decades, struggling with high unemployment (currently just over 11%) and rampant crime. Schools have been deeply affected as well, and in 2008, Detroit was reported as having the worst high school graduation rate of any city, just under 25%. Central High School has been one of the most strongly affected by the general economic decline of Detroit, with more than 74% of students living below the poverty line. Over the past decade, Central has produced some of the worst test scores anywhere in the city, though Ford, Denby, Mumford, and Pershing high schools aren’t far behind. Just this year, the city announced plans to place these schools under the Educational Achievement Authority, which would regulate instruction, lengthen the school year, and work to improve teacher development. This infusion of cash and resources may be just what this impoverished school needs to get back on track.

8. Batesland, South Dakota, Shannon County Virtual High School:

   According to census data, Batesland is located in the second poorest county in the nation, with most of its residents living on nearby reservations that have extraordinarily high rates of poverty. How high? 45.8% of families and 39.2% of the population as a whole live below the poverty line, including 39.4% of children and 100% of seniors. The community has no traditional high school, instead opting for a virtual school, which has much less overhead and does not require students to travel to attend classes. Unfortunately, the poor quality of schools (perhaps giving students little hope of getting ahead) and the general poverty of the community has taken a toll on students, and during the 2009-2010 school year nine students committed suicide, promoting the USDE to give an emergency grant of $50,000 to the country to help improve conditions.

9. New Orleans, LA, The Alternative Learning Institute:

   While the economy of New Orleans is finally starting to pick up after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, many communities within the city are still struggling to get by, facing high crime rates, poverty, and unemployment. These factors all trickle down into the local school system and in 2011 a whopping 91 of the 103 public schools in the city were in the failing category according to No Child Left Behind standards, making it the lowest performing school district in the state. These poor scores are undoubtedly related to the economic despair of the community at large, with more than 40% of kids in New Orleans living under the poverty line, lacking basic school supplies, educational resources, and even food at home. The Alternative Learning Institute serves some of the poorest communities in New Orleans, with 95.7% of its students living close to or below the poverty line. With few resources and beleaguered by larger community issues, test scores in the school are about as low as they could be, with only 4% of students being proficient in math and reading.

10. Baltimore, MD, Frederick Douglass High:

    Many schools in Baltimore, particularly those in the most poverty-stricken areas, are feeling the pain of statewide budget issues. Recent changes in a school-improvement grants program that allows funds to go to any school in the state rather than straight to those that are neediest have made things even worse. At Frederick Douglass High, 80.7% of students receive free or reduced-cost lunches and citywide more than 83% of schools have half their students or more qualifying for these benefits. That’s a pretty high rate of poverty, and as you might imagine it has a direct impact on the quality and performance of schools in the city, including Frederick Douglass, one of the lowest performing schools in the state. The school was the subject of a recent documentary called Hard Times at Douglass High: A No Child Left Behind Report Card, which documented the academic and financial struggles of the school.

Only the efforts of outstanding teachers and administrators are able to keep these schools functioning at all. Legislation such as No Child Left Behind, the educational reforms proposed by a recent Council on Foreign Relations taskforce headed by Joel Klein and Condoleezza Rice, and even President Obama’s threat to penalize schools with high drop-out rates in his 2012 State of the Union Address, only serve to further weaken these schools by punishing them for "failing" to teach their students. How can even the best teachers reach all of the students who live under the circumstances described here?

In areas where the tax revenue funding system has failed because of urban flight and de-industrialization, or exorbitant tax breaks given to corporations in these impoverished areas, societal and governmental responsibility for providing the support and funding for these schools is needed to help the schools and their neighborhoods crawl out of poverty. The argument that hard work will allow any individual to escape the circumstances of their birth is a myth; you can only pull yourself up by your bootstraps if you have boots to begin with.

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