Last week a student sent me an email. He wanted to share his views with me. I quote him in spanish:

"Hace unos años escuche que MIT era la universidad que producía los mejor ingenieros del planeta yo no estaba conforme con [esa] idea; pero al llevar el curso 6.002x me pude dar cuenta que todo se basa en su sistema de enseñanza y la motivación para aprender."

What the student told me was that he heard MIT graduates were the best of the world.   He said he did not like the idea of consigning MIT that honor. But after taking 6.002x he has realized what make MIT one of the best: "It is about its education system and the passion they put on learning."

Waiting for "Superman"

I think It was last year that while reading the newspaper I found a critique on the documentary Waiting for "Superman". I have to say in my favor that I do not like pirating movies, books or anything from the Internet. But I was so curious about that work  that I did not care about violating the documentary's copy right. I watched the documentary and it was a very shocking experience.

There is something universal in the film, however the documentary analyze the failures of the American public education, that touches deep in the heart. As an educator, I think, It has to do with a hidden guilt of not doing enough to help our youth. Waiting for superman touched me very deeply. And my student email has made me recall my debt with my job.
 

Internet-based Talk radio

Today we visited La Prensa Gráfica, a national newspaper which has started to run a internet-base radio service.  Every Thursday they have a college section. We came to talk about our experience with 6.002x and Edx. Talk radio shows have been associated with AM/FM.  Internet-based talk-radio shows have become a low-cost solution. La Prensa Gráfica is trying to make his way through this technology.

From left to right, Lester, Jaime, Roosemberth, Fredy, Carlos, Flori, Jorge and Gabriel.

 By chance, The Honduran students IEEE branch's president came with us. To have her with us was very important because she is going to back MOOC initiatives in Honduras. Flori is a nice girl who has highly social skills. I have no doubts She can achieve similar ideas in Honduras.

Mauricio, Flori, Gabirel, Roosemberth, Lester and Fredy

The program has been recorded as a podcast. I don't know how big our audience was. However, I have no doubt we are going to work for trying a bigger audience.

Revolution Hits the Universities (II)

I have earned a little bit of knowledge regarding college unrest. I have carried out a little research regarding students revolts at the University of El Salvador. I have also submitted a book on that issue. That is why I found Thomas Friedman's headline very provocative: "Revolution Hits the Universities"

But fortunately this time, revolution is of another kind.

Revolution Hits the Universities, Thomas Friedman, The New York Times

MOOC as a kind of foreign aid?
Thomas Friedman gives a hint of how to focus American foreign aid: "Imagine how this might change U.S. foreign aid. For relatively little money, the U.S. could rent space in an Egyptian village, install two dozen computers and high-speed satellite Internet access, hire a local teacher as a facilitator, and invite in any Egyptian who wanted to take online courses with the best professors in the world, subtitled in Arabic."

Revolution Hits the Universities (I)

Luis Alberto Sanchez, president of Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Peru, wrote one of his experiences, lived in one of his many trips around the world: "In April 22, 1968, I arrived in Paris from Dakar. I tried to meet with my friends Jean Roche, president of Sorbonne, and Monbeing Pierre, chairman of Institute of Latin American Studies. With Roche I could not even communicate by phone; Monbeig explained that he was subjected to an unavoidable schedule visits, discussions and negotiations."

Alberto Sanchez could not meet his friends. Paris was in the midst of a rebellion. The multiple epicentres were in college, in high school and in French unions. Having nothing to do in Paris, He decided to continue with his world trip schedule and flew to New York. He arrived on  April 26th. He had to meet Grayson Kirk, University of Columbia's president. To his amazement, Columbia University was in the middle of a student revolt. He did not even dare to contact Columbia officials. The press put him abreast of what was happening.

David Shapiro, taken from The Terror of the Poet.

For several days activist students, linked to groups whose radicalism was in crescendo, seized several university buildings. The news in the print media reported a disturbing picture. David Shapiro, a scruffy student, was photographed  sitting in the president's chair, very relaxed, wearing sunglasses and smoking one of the president's cigars he found in the broken office.

A few months after his coming back, Alberto Sánchez had to deal with a homegrown student rebellion.

A group picture

I had the idea of having a group picture. I got very surprised to see that almost everybody attended the call. Around thirty people got their diploma; among them the electrical engineering chairman (firs line at the left). He also took the fall 6.002x course; and got a perfect score. To get him enrolled was very important because he could serve as a good role model.

Picture courtesy of Wilber Calderón.

In general the experience was very rewarding. We just can hope other majors at our university could follow our path. I guess our new goal will be Electricity and Magnetism by professor Walter Lewin.

I am also willing to give new talks about our experience. Perhaps with a little bit of luck we could magnify this effort to a bigger scale.

What's next? (I)

Today Wednesday January 23, Salvadoran 6.002x-ers had a meeting. I called them for having a kind of graduation picture. But almost spontaneously came out a need to talk about what we had achieved. Also the question What's next? came to the table. We discussed several proposals. I will mention just two of them; which require to add no new bureaucracy. One proposal was to ask our department a MOOC course as a four credit elective course. Electrical Engineering Students are required to take eight elective four credit courses. Because the department has only 12 full time professors and 2 part-timers, elective course list is very short.

 The other proposal was to use a mandatory course which was originally designed to do small research. The course has to be taken in the last year, as a research course under a professor supervision. A carefully chosen MOOC course could be replaced instead. The course could help to carry on later an undergraduate Thesis. 

I do not know if any of this two proposals will materialize. But I got the feeling we had achieved something we did not have before. We had expanded our vision of the world. I can not image myself, twenty years ago, when I was an engineering student, having this kind of conversation. MIT, Harvard, Berkeley was foreign to us. The only american college images I could think of were the ones portrayed by cheap Hollywood movies (Porky's, Revenge of the Nerds and so on).

Picture courtesy of Ovidio Medrano.

I can not help avoid to say something about some students who felt cheated by our system. They managed to succeed in 6.002x but fail our basic circuit analysis and analog electronic courses.

After our little brainstorming we decided to take the pictures. Below I was portrayed with a very clever teenager.  Roossenberth, a sixteen years old boy, took the course. He approved 6.002x and, following my advice, he will take it again. But this time he will arm himself with a calculus course, served by coursera.
                                     

The need to have a role model

In past posts I have quoted professor Paul Kim's opinions, given in his MOOC course. In his seventh lecture he talked about some of his educational projects. But also he introduced a very key issue: the need to have a role model.

Cameron Diaz in the movie Bad Teacher.

Role model
Focusing on early education, Professor Kim talked about his 1001 stories project. Also he recalled his personal child experiences: "When I was growing up, I remember reading about Abraham Lincoln, Ghandi, Einstein and inventors and great heroes of nations. I was inspired by their stories. Their stories shaped my role model. The children in the developing region don’t have access to stories that can inspired them."

6.002x produced some results
As I have said before, two professors and five of our best students enrolled and passed with success the very first 6.002x course. In a way we served as a model for students who enrolled during 6.002x second edition. During the fall  edition, two more professors enrolled. One of them was our chairman. Both of them got a perfect score. Totally, during 2012, four out of twelve professors passed 6.002x. That is to say, 33% of the electrical engineering department full-time faculties took the course.

In addition the students who took the spring course served as a model for their peers; who enrolled by fall.