Special Blog Post Assignment

Mr. Thrun's World Without Grades

In the USA article, Mr. Thrun gives his case for what he feels will be the school of the future. He tells us about his recent trip into "Wonderland" of the virtual classroom. With the help of just a few assistants he plans to revolutionize the way that classes are taught. He talks about his first virtual class that allows students to join his free online class on artificial intelligence. Over 160,000 students registered for the course, which fuels his ideas and hopes for the future. In his ideal class, students attend and progress at their own pace. Students will have a learning opportunity that is completely different from what is available to students today. His classes will give students the chance to learn through games and real life situations like the "Rescue Apollo Astronauts" game he mentions, which answers the students ever p

resent complant. "When will I ever use this in my job?"
I agree with Mr. Thurn that this is an excellent new way of looking at the education system, a place where student success is measured by their own mastery of the curriculum. Also, if grades were eliminated, students would probably stick with a class longer than those who realize they are not going to pass and simply drop the course. Free also sounds good to me, especially right now with my own college bills rising every semester. Where I find fault with this type of schooling is that it seems to isolate the student from physical interaction with students. Dr. Strange has shown us in EDM 310 that group projects are possible and even more effective in online courses as far as being able to verify who did what in the group. I feel that this is not all that we need to teach our children. They need to know how to deal with real life situations and be able to interact with real human beings instead of computer screens. I also think that grades will be important as long as schooling is important because this calibrates the future employers into finding the best of the best for their positions. As long as we need a way to show aptitude, grades will remain in the picture.