LaunchPad Central (https://www.launchpadcentral.com/) helps enterprises, universities, investors, and governments scale their entrepreneurship and innovation programs.
We're looking for engineers and designers interested in Ed-Tech and Enterprise. As a part of our team, you will get to work with thought leaders like Steve Blank to build the SaaS platform that is changing the way entrepreneurship is taught and innovation is created.
The company is 2 years old. We are a tight-knit team of 10 focused on making a "dent in the universe". You can see more definitive roles here: https://www.launchpadcentral.com/jobs
You can apply by emailing me directly with links to a couple of things you've built - kevin@launchpadcentral.com
Incredibly, some accredited universities have already taken the leap into offering college credit from truly online courses. These types of partnerships are astonishing, and hopefully just a glimpse of where we are headed in education.
Do you think granting credit towards the standard degree is the direction these types of services are aiming? What do you think about a new measure of education (i.e. not the degree)?
For tech companies (especially startups), it seems like formal education is not the primary measure of a potential hire. Developers use github to showcase their talents. Designers use Dribble. Everyone can use personal projects/blogs.
Obviously, this doesn't work for a lot areas such as hard sciences (physics, biology, chemistry), business, medicine, etc. However, there does seem to be a decent portion of careers/passions that do not require formal education; both to perform and to be judged by.
I would love to here what you (and others on HN) think.
P.S. Couldn't agree more --> "we'll see the benefits of an [more] educated society around the globe."
I don't think it's the direction they're aiming at the moment, but that makes me sad. There's an opportunity here to step out of our privileged bubble of tech startups and make a difference for the world as a whole.
I was watching Charlie Rose's last interview with Carl Sagan recently. He cited a NY Times article, "Americans Flunk Science" that said less than half of American adults understood that the Earth rotates the sun yearly. http://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/24/us/americans-flunk-science...
Carl Sagan pointed out that "if we (the general public) don't understand, then who is making all the decisions about science and technology that are going to determine our future?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jod7v-m573k
When the general level of education suffers in a society, you get superstition, xenophobia, anti-intellectualism, bigotry, and many other things. It's in everyone's interest to raise the educational level of the human race.
If open courseware is viewed as something that's only for those that already have a love of learning, it will remain elite and cloistered among a small segment of society. If it becomes available as a formal education, it could go mainstream, and suddenly anyone with access to a good internet connection will be motivated and able to pursue higher education.
If we want to make quality advanced education mainstream and widespread, most people will need to see OCW as an opportunity to earn degree credits, not just as an opportunity for "personal growth." Sure, I think everyone ought to love learning just for the sake of learning, but I'm realistic, and I know that if you want to bring everyone in, you have to entice them with tangible benefits. They'll catch the love of learning once they are exposed to the kind of things a service like Udacity offers, but first you have to get them in.
Another commenter was worried about services like these becoming "Phoenix University wannabes." There will be some OCW services that will cater to the less ambitious or less intellectually capable. That's not a bad thing. For the impoverished or otherwise disadvantaged student capable of Stanford or MIT-level academics, though, there will be more challenging OCW services.
I can envision no scenario where making quality education and formal degrees available to anyone willing to step up and take advantage of it could be a bad thing. It's important for us to remember that while a formal degree might be unnecessary for someone with the right connections and opportunities, for most people in the world, it's still a very important thing to have.
LaunchPad Central (https://www.launchpadcentral.com/) helps enterprises, universities, investors, and governments scale their entrepreneurship and innovation programs.
We're looking for engineers and designers interested in Ed-Tech and Enterprise. As a part of our team, you will get to work with thought leaders like Steve Blank to build the SaaS platform that is changing the way entrepreneurship is taught and innovation is created.
The company is 2 years old. We are a tight-knit team of 10 focused on making a "dent in the universe". You can see more definitive roles here: https://www.launchpadcentral.com/jobs
You can apply by emailing me directly with links to a couple of things you've built - kevin@launchpadcentral.com