Is the biggest classroom in the world the screen in front of you? The screen -
Whether it's on a laptop, a tablet, a mobile phone, or even a TV,
It plays an important role in the life of young people.
When a student protest in London ended this month, the last group of demonstrators naturally did one thing --
They sat on the edge of the sidewalk and took out their laptops, glowing like a pile of digital campfire.
Entertainment, social and information have become screensshaped.
The global online learning program has also incorporated education into this framework.
What attracts people's attention is Khan college in the United States.
Based on the free online tuition service, help young people catch up with the course and allow smart children to further expand themselves.
If you haven't heard of it, it will soon appear in a dinner party conversation near you.
Recent data show that the number of people using the site per month has tripled in a year to 3. 5 million.
The combination of broadband, cheaper laptops and iPads --
Tablets have pushed this online teaching service to the mainstream.
Khan Academy has thousands of stepsby-
Video of steps to introduce subjects such as mathematics and science.
It is also interactive, allowing individual students to test themselves over and over again and then draw their own progress charts.
On the tablet, students can write directly on the touch screen.
This is a seemingly simple concept.
YouTube interactive whiteboard with triangle-
85 million videos have been downloaded so far.
It is free for users, but there are some very wealthy friends.
With its foundation and rapid growth in California, it's more like the beginning of a number --
More important than the education program
Bill Gates praised Khan Academy as the beginning of the revolution ".
He said he used
A tutorial on himself and the size of his children.
His charity foundation not only provides warm words, but also provides cold cash --$5. 5m (£3. 5m)so far.
Google has invested $2 m. £1. 3m)
And Sean O'Sullivan-
The entrepreneur wrote the word "cloud computing" as "cloud computing ".
Five million dollars have been donated (£3. 2m)
Through his foundation.
Shantanu Sinha, dean and chief operating officer of Khan Academy, said the program is part of a "major change" in education.
"The accessibility environment is changing," he said . ".
Anyone with an Internet connection can plug in resources that are now available online, regardless of where they live.
Cheap tablets will become ubiquitous.
Getting information is like getting clean tap water.
Great education will be regarded as the basic needs of human beings.
"The arrival of devices like the IPad is a game --
He looked at the students and said, changed.
Friendly quality such as "intimacy, portability, low cost.
He predicts that the $100 tablet will soon be on the shelves.
Another key driver of Khan Academy is the idea of personalized education --
Allow children to progress at their own pace and develop a separate path, rather than being taught within the limits of classes with large differences in ability.
This idea of trying personalized learning is a very hot topic, driving the modern iZone experiment in New York.
The Khan Academy website allows students to follow a structured curriculum through a subject, answering a large number of videos and questions in more and more languages.
Mr. Sinha said that this is not a substitute for schools or teachers.
In fact, the College is building its own reality.
World summer school and work with schools in San Francisco, California.
But it does raise some big questions about the future functions of schools and universities --
In particular, American universities charge students $50,000 a year.
Another striking aspect of the Khan Academy equation is the influence of such a small team.
There were volunteers, but as of November 2011, there were only 20time staff.
Millions of students scattered around the world are receiving the services of a primary school-scale staff.
The idea of institutions doing high-
Tweedy cousin iTunes U of Apple's iTunes music and video download service pioneered free lectures.
At the age of four, iTunes U was the originator of such online teaching resources.
This is a spectacular resource that is almost overlooked.
Download nearly a million lectures and course materials daily from 1,000 universities around the world, including many of the most prominent institutions.
This month, when students protested tuition fees from London to Quebec, Dublin to California, it was still a gateway to non-tariff teaching with 500,000 free items to choose from.
It even has its own top 10 charts.
This week, in a series of lectures at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, artist Rachel Whithead gave a speech.
Lectures from Harvard, Oxford, Open University, Stanford and NASA are among the top 10.
It's important not to hype up shiny new technology toys, but there's some synergy between these instant, downloadable lectures and iPad-type tablets.
Open University is one of the world's most popular iTunes U material providers, and it is reported that ipad downloads have increased significantly.
In the United States, more than 2,300 school districts have started projects using the ipad.
More and more classrooms each student has a classroom.
But what does it all mean for the future?
"Virtual School" has become an increasingly common feature of the American system, which teaches most children at home.
With the arrival of charter schools, there are also virtual charter schools funded by taxpayers.
Such digital innovation is supported by the Obama administration.
They want to keep up with the cyber ambitions of countries like South Korea.
It prompts headlines such as "my teacher is an app.
But there are concerns that the relatively low price of virtual teaching can be used as a way to cut spending on traditional bricks --and-mortar schools.
There are also some questions about virtual schools as entry points for the following projects
A profitable organization that sells educational technology, evaluates and manages services.
It is claimed that this may be outsourcing, not resources.
Perhaps this tension reflects the difficulties of traditional education.
Its command and control instincts
Have a large amount of unmapped online information.
William Darton of the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University said that it is difficult for traditional universities to align their teaching with the way young people gather information.
In "informal learning" outside the classroom, Professor Darton says, the Internet is the first place for many people to look for information, whether it's using Wikipedia or searching for some specific details.
"But the university has yet to figure out how to integrate online information into the course," he said . ".
So far, the online degree relationship is poor, usually for careers rather than academic subjects, providing a cheaper route for those who are unable or unwilling to pay for the full accommodation university experience.
But Professor Darton expects this to change, and it is possible for all universities to turn to "mixed" learning at least to some extentto-
Face teaching and online learning.
The evidence, he argues, suggests that future learners are more immersed in the online world.
A recent survey of Internet usage by the Oxford Institute shows that "next generation users" are characterized by the use of a variety of portable online devices
Whether it's a laptop, a phone or an ipad.
When they want any news, information or things in real time
The first port of call was the Internet.
Therefore, it will become increasingly unrealistic to exclude online learning from the University, Professor Darton said.
The university also uses this clickable access method to uncover Oxford's mystery through a series of Oxford sound videos, allowing potential students to hear voices from employees and students.
Will online learning reach other places where teaching is missing?
Or it will copy all the inequalities, but in onetech form?
For Shantanu Sinha, the central question is to give more people the opportunity to get the core materials they need in the most useful form, regardless of income or geographical location.
This is egalitarianism on the Internet.
"Everyone should be educated," he said . "