Links to Koller and Horowitz talks added 21 August.
At the foot of this post is an 18 minute talk by Peter Norvig at the Google 2012 Faculty Summit on 26 July. In it Norvig reflects on what he learned from developing and running last year's "Stanford" online AI course (in which I participated), making links as he goes with the widely applicable "Theory and Research-based Principles of Learning", from Carnegie Mellon University's Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence.
Two othe things stood out for me from the talk.
The first is the reference Norvig makes to the challenges posed for course design and operation by the "dynamic range" of an online openly enrolled course, by which he means the wider range of capabilities and experience than would be found on a course where there are strict admission requirements. Norvig is not claiming that this idea is new, but it is good that it is getting attention.
The second is this very striking quote from the polymath Herb Simon:
Learning results from what the student does and thinks and only from what the student does and thinks. The teacher can advance learning only by influencing what the student does to learn.
which squares strongly with something that Dylan Wiliam said at the 2007 ALT conference (where Peter also spoke):
Learning power is a concept that Guy Claxton has put forward. The key concept here—the big trap—is that teachers do not create learning. That’s true—teachers do not create learning, and yet most teachers behave as if they do. Learners create learning. Teachers create the conditions under which learning can take place.
(The full transcript of Dylan's talk is available for download [PDF]. Other talks from the Google 2012 Faculty Summit are also available: Daphne Koller; Bradley Horowitz - hat tip to R Seiter. Horowitz's talk about Google +, for which he is responsible at Google, is particularly interesting.)
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