When a 15 year-old in Mongolia aces an MIT Electrical Engineering on-line course for sophomores ...
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MIT's EE 6.002x is "the edX version of MIT’s introduction to electrical engineering class," offered on-line to thousands. With the guidance of an idealistic young Stanford Ph.D. student, Tony Kim, who traveled to Ulan Bator on a shoe-string budget to work with young Mongolian students [^], a high-school student, Buttushig: "got a 100% on the final: one of 340 6.002x students out of 150,000 in the world to do that." Buttushig had: "never received any special education abroad." Tony Kim's blog is here: [^]." The New York Times has (a now four-part) series, titled "Virtual U," covering developments in on-line education, and this article, today, reported Buttushig's remarkable achievement: [^]. Sometimes, in spite of this life's experience, I feel, for a moment, there is hope for the future of this savage world; I feel (without thinking of the modern dystopian Aldous Huxley connotation) what Miranda may have been feeling in "The Tempest," when she says: "O, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in't!" For Tony Kim, and Buttushig: Godspeed !
~ “This isn't right; this isn't even wrong." Wolfgang Pauli, commenting on a physics paper submitted for a journal
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MIT's EE 6.002x is "the edX version of MIT’s introduction to electrical engineering class," offered on-line to thousands. With the guidance of an idealistic young Stanford Ph.D. student, Tony Kim, who traveled to Ulan Bator on a shoe-string budget to work with young Mongolian students [^], a high-school student, Buttushig: "got a 100% on the final: one of 340 6.002x students out of 150,000 in the world to do that." Buttushig had: "never received any special education abroad." Tony Kim's blog is here: [^]." The New York Times has (a now four-part) series, titled "Virtual U," covering developments in on-line education, and this article, today, reported Buttushig's remarkable achievement: [^]. Sometimes, in spite of this life's experience, I feel, for a moment, there is hope for the future of this savage world; I feel (without thinking of the modern dystopian Aldous Huxley connotation) what Miranda may have been feeling in "The Tempest," when she says: "O, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in't!" For Tony Kim, and Buttushig: Godspeed !
~ “This isn't right; this isn't even wrong." Wolfgang Pauli, commenting on a physics paper submitted for a journal
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Indeed Ravi, I'd put the Khan Academy "up in lights," also. I think it's wonderful that John Resig, the inventor of jQuery, joined the Khan Academy. yours, Bill
~ “This isn't right; this isn't even wrong." Wolfgang Pauli, commenting on a physics paper submitted for a journal
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Agree 100%. His website is superb.
If there is one thing more dangerous than getting between a bear and her cubs it's getting between my wife and her chocolate.
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MIT's EE 6.002x is "the edX version of MIT’s introduction to electrical engineering class," offered on-line to thousands. With the guidance of an idealistic young Stanford Ph.D. student, Tony Kim, who traveled to Ulan Bator on a shoe-string budget to work with young Mongolian students [^], a high-school student, Buttushig: "got a 100% on the final: one of 340 6.002x students out of 150,000 in the world to do that." Buttushig had: "never received any special education abroad." Tony Kim's blog is here: [^]." The New York Times has (a now four-part) series, titled "Virtual U," covering developments in on-line education, and this article, today, reported Buttushig's remarkable achievement: [^]. Sometimes, in spite of this life's experience, I feel, for a moment, there is hope for the future of this savage world; I feel (without thinking of the modern dystopian Aldous Huxley connotation) what Miranda may have been feeling in "The Tempest," when she says: "O, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in't!" For Tony Kim, and Buttushig: Godspeed !
~ “This isn't right; this isn't even wrong." Wolfgang Pauli, commenting on a physics paper submitted for a journal
You know that she has to be on commission too. How else could she evade immigration authorities for so long, hopping and bopping across the countryside, assuming multiple identities holding multiple addresses under false social security information scrivenings ... and afford to look like that. All that mascara, the blush caked on thicker than powdered sugar a jelly donut, yellow gold around her neck, etc. And that grey cashmir sweater getup! If you ask me, that cellphone in her hand was held there by tetanus. Mortified she was, especially when she went to take a step forward after Jeeves closed the front doors. Bill, what's your point?
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MIT's EE 6.002x is "the edX version of MIT’s introduction to electrical engineering class," offered on-line to thousands. With the guidance of an idealistic young Stanford Ph.D. student, Tony Kim, who traveled to Ulan Bator on a shoe-string budget to work with young Mongolian students [^], a high-school student, Buttushig: "got a 100% on the final: one of 340 6.002x students out of 150,000 in the world to do that." Buttushig had: "never received any special education abroad." Tony Kim's blog is here: [^]." The New York Times has (a now four-part) series, titled "Virtual U," covering developments in on-line education, and this article, today, reported Buttushig's remarkable achievement: [^]. Sometimes, in spite of this life's experience, I feel, for a moment, there is hope for the future of this savage world; I feel (without thinking of the modern dystopian Aldous Huxley connotation) what Miranda may have been feeling in "The Tempest," when she says: "O, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in't!" For Tony Kim, and Buttushig: Godspeed !
~ “This isn't right; this isn't even wrong." Wolfgang Pauli, commenting on a physics paper submitted for a journal
Maybe you could help me because I'm uncertain what makes you feel this is such a remarkable event. Is it because the student in question is from Mongolia? If you are like me the first association that comes to mind when you think of Mongolia is a semi-literate, nomadic, horse people living in yurts. Of course, if I actually stop to think about it I realize this is a ridiculous characterization based on outdated ideas. If the student were from London, England or Seoul, South Korea do you think you would have found the story less remarkable?
Quote:
Buttushig had: "never received any special education abroad."
This quote seems to suggest that it is impossible to receive a decent education within Mongolia. The insinuation being a child educated in Mongolia can not be on par with a western educated child. Is Mongolia really that far behind, especially the capital? I don't know. But, given this child had internet access and, from what I can tell from the pictures, a decent electronics lab in which to work my sense is that my view of Mongolia is much further behind than Mongolia actually is. Hans Rosling does a good job exploring and exploding this type of bias in his Ted talk "The Best Stats You've Ever Seen" [^]. Maybe the piece of this story that really elevates it to the status of remarkable is the fact that the student in question is 15. But how are we to rate the performance of a 15 year old? For this to be remarkable it has to be different from what we expect for a such a person. At first glance, this does appear to be a performance beyond that of an average 15 year old. But, how are we determining what to expect on average?. It seems we are basing it upon an average child who has received an average education. However, this raises the question, does an average education raise a child anywhere near their true potential? In his talk, "How Schools Kill Creativity" [^], Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and strong argument that they don't. Is it really surprising or remarkable in any way that a student who has a natural and strong interest in electronics and who is given access to an intelligent, dedicated teacher actually masters the basics of the subject? Wouldn't it be much more surprising if he didn't?