10 ms·

Introducing The Floating University

94 points by turing 15y ago

xtacy 15y ago
Website seems down, here's a cached copy: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://floatinguniversity.com/ http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...
szany 15y ago
per ampliora ad altiora = from breadth to depth
- ericd 15y ago
  Oh interesting, great motto. They should definitely make that a mouseover or include it below it.
- Sniffnoy 15y ago
  Can "per" mean "from"? It usually means "through".
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  - szany 15y ago
    You're right, it's "through" not "from". I can't edit it now.
- psykotic 15y ago
  I'm pretty sure the literal meaning of altiora (cf. altitude) is height. Of course, depth and height have very similar connotations when applied to intellectual pursuits. The breadth/depth pairing is more idiomatic in English, but my reading of the metaphor is that it suggests a wide, solid foundation is needed as the base of a towering structure. Or I could be totally off. :)
  - loevborg 15y ago
    "altus" is an adjective and can mean both high and deep, depending on context. The literal meaning of the phrase is "Through wider things to higher/deeper things." "Through breadth to depth" is pretty close to that.
jasonkostempski 15y ago
These types of sites, TED, Khan Academy, etc. get me so excited for the future. Unfortunately the phrase 'everyone, everywhere' comes with that little asterisk: *with high-speed internet access. I think a movement to get internet to 'everyone, everywhere' needs to happen along side this internet education movement to be as potentially world-changing as I'd like to imagine it. Not that the education movement alone isn't great, there is a huge gap between being able to afford high-speed internet and affording/getting into a good college.
- nitrogen 15y ago
  Still, the set of "everyone, everywhere with high-speed internet access" is larger than the set of "everyone, everywhere with money and access to a top-tier university."
- sneak 15y ago
  Red herring. Internet access will only become faster, cheaper, and more prevalent. It's not the job of educators or video producers to string fibers in Africa, after all. I think it's a completely different discussion - bringing The Knowledge Of The World to people and places that don't have it - than online education systems.
- stonemetal 15y ago
  Yeah but you are talking about everyone with access to a library, or a computer and a McDonald, Barnes and Noble ...
- cabalamat 15y ago
  > comes with that little asterisk: *with high-speed internet access By the end of the decade, I expect that >90% of humanity will have this (or be able to easily afford it).
- ippisl 15y ago
  Even in africa , for places where bandwidth is expensive, once the community got computers, or android phones, it's pretty easy and cheap to distribute some content from khan or TED,without needing internet access for each person.
jpadvo 15y ago
The fact that this will be offered for credit at accredited universities with physical campuses is really intriguing. Often efforts like this have difficulty getting the institutional buyin that will lead to real change. As a side note, they could have chosen a name with a better acronym -- FU already has meaning attached to it for a lot of people.
- AltIvan 15y ago
  They are TFU i guess.
- illume 15y ago
  Heh. That's up there with the university once known as the Cassurina University of Northern Territory. They changed their name pretty quickly.
- dorian-graph 15y ago
  I imagine the people who wouldn't be able to get past the 'FU' thing probably wouldn't bother going to university anyway. It's like with the Wii, we all had a little giggle when we first heard it and then we got over it.. except for those few people..
  - saurik 15y ago
    It isn't the people going to the university that will be the problem: it will be trying to explain what you are doing to your parents, employers, or friends. I got my degree from "The College of Creative Studies", which has one of the top physics programs in the nation; this is understood by grad programs you talk to, but all those people external to the academic process just look at you as if you are insane, and went to some kind of lala-happy program.
motters 15y ago
There is a big opportunity here, because higher education seems to be facing a crisis. Due to big increases in the costs of university education, combined with the reasonable reticence of students to take on large amounts of debt which may take decades to repay, for the first time it seems possible that the next generation may be less well educated than their parents - unless something changes.
BlackJack 15y ago
I can't say for Harvard or Bard, but at Yale, this course is a seminar. You can watch the videos whenever you want, but you also have physical class on Wednesday from 3:30 to 5:20, where you'll discuss the readings and the professors (Peter Salovey and Adam Glick) will try to make you think in an interdisciplinary way. Although the online aspect and all that is great, I think this is novel for another reason. Charlie Munger, vice chair of Berkshire Hathaway, has often talked about building a latticework of mental models i.e. take the big ideas from various disciplines, and use those models to solve problems. This course is basically a physical version of what he's espoused his whole life. I'm definitely going to try to get into this course - sounds awesome!
100k 15y ago
> "Floating University subscriptions will also be available to the general public with full course packs and video lectures via the Internet." Any idea what this is going to cost?
- re_chief 15y ago
  Thought it was kind of interesting that they didn't have any sort of cost in the FAQ section. I would think that that would be a frequently asked question.
  - tryitnow 15y ago
    Yep, the lack of transparency just made me think "next" - I'll be looking into Stanford's free AI courses. Or the many other free courses out there. I couldn't figure out what FU's value prop is that makes it worth $495. Maybe "FU" is an appropriate name after all.
- shadowsun7 15y ago
  The individual subscription fee is $495 and lectures are available for up to 6 months from the date of purchase. http://floatinguniversity.com/courses http://floatinguniversity.com/courses
Astrohacker 15y ago
Cool. But is the future of education really having professors give lectures, except now it's online? Here are some brainstorm ideas for alternatives: * Allow anyone, not just existing professors, create a course on any topic and of any length. May the best teachers win. * Allow and encourage students to make their own lectures and courses. * Enable and encourage two-way communication. Perhaps people can post responses to other people's lectures.
- jayfuerstenberg 15y ago
  Good ideas but I think you're describing the internet as it exists in general. Youtube is only one-way I suppose but it facilitates channels like the Khan Academy ( http://www.youtube.com/user/khanacademy http://www.youtube.com/user/khanacademy ).
  - Astrohacker 15y ago
    YouTube is good, but it isn't really designed for education. How can you give out assignments with YouTube? What about paying teachers? A YouTube-for-education would be explicitly designed to bring people together for learning purposes. And money would probably need to be involved... people should be paid to teach. After watching some free samples, students would probably be willing to pay to watch videos from some teachers, or to have their work critiqued by those teachers.
- keiferski 15y ago
  Those don't address the credential aspect of a degree program.
  - Astrohacker 15y ago
    I don't think credentials are very meaningful. An alternative is to let students simply display all their work on the internet. Employers can check out their work to determine their eligibility for a job.
    - 15y ago
spartango 15y ago
Interesting. Although I wonder why the topics are so heavily biased toward the humanities... One would think that a view of the sciences would be equally important.
- Hyena 15y ago
  Probably because Khan Academy is heavily biased towards mathematics and OCW heavily biased towards science/engineering.
  - dagw 15y ago
    But Khan is basically only high school level material, and doesn't really compete or overlap with anything offering university level courses.
    - Hyena 15y ago
      True, but there's nothing that keeps it from expanding higher and it has all the resources for it already in place. I'd think Khan Academy is likely to slowly become the major mathematics provider. Possibly also finance, depends on whether they expand those sections.
jeffreymcmanus 15y ago
I'm confused as to how this works. Is it just pre-recorded videos? The site says "no homework, no tests". If you just watch the videos, how does it reinforce what you've learned? Is there any interaction with the instructor?
- szany 15y ago
  There's an in-class presentation and a final paper, according to the syllabus: http://floatinguniversity.com/files/Great%20Big%20Ideas%20-%20Course%20Syllabus.pdf http://floatinguniversity.com/files/Great%20Big%20Ideas%20-%...
spiffistan 15y ago
$495 for 12 videos about why you should think outside the box? I dunno man...
- dagw 15y ago
  And for your $495, you don't even get to download keep the videos. You get to view them for 6 month. I guess if I want to review them again next year I'm out an additional $495. I was totally stoked when I read about the concept, but $40 a video for time limited streaming just made the whole thing a lot less interesting.

94 points by turing 15y ago

xtacy 15y ago

Website seems down, here's a cached copy: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://floatinguniversity.com/ http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...

szany 15y ago

per ampliora ad altiora = from breadth to depth

ericd 15y ago
Oh interesting, great motto. They should definitely make that a mouseover or include it below it.
Sniffnoy 15y ago
Can "per" mean "from"? It usually means "through".
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- szany 15y ago
  You're right, it's "through" not "from". I can't edit it now.
psykotic 15y ago
I'm pretty sure the literal meaning of altiora (cf. altitude) is height. Of course, depth and height have very similar connotations when applied to intellectual pursuits. The breadth/depth pairing is more idiomatic in English, but my reading of the metaphor is that it suggests a wide, solid foundation is needed as the base of a towering structure. Or I could be totally off. :)
- loevborg 15y ago
  "altus" is an adjective and can mean both high and deep, depending on context. The literal meaning of the phrase is "Through wider things to higher/deeper things." "Through breadth to depth" is pretty close to that.

jasonkostempski 15y ago

These types of sites, TED, Khan Academy, etc. get me so excited for the future. Unfortunately the phrase 'everyone, everywhere' comes with that little asterisk: *with high-speed internet access. I think a movement to get internet to 'everyone, everywhere' needs to happen along side this internet education movement to be as potentially world-changing as I'd like to imagine it. Not that the education movement alone isn't great, there is a huge gap between being able to afford high-speed internet and affording/getting into a good college.

nitrogen 15y ago
Still, the set of "everyone, everywhere with high-speed internet access" is larger than the set of "everyone, everywhere with money and access to a top-tier university."
sneak 15y ago
Red herring. Internet access will only become faster, cheaper, and more prevalent. It's not the job of educators or video producers to string fibers in Africa, after all. I think it's a completely different discussion - bringing The Knowledge Of The World to people and places that don't have it - than online education systems.
stonemetal 15y ago
Yeah but you are talking about everyone with access to a library, or a computer and a McDonald, Barnes and Noble ...
cabalamat 15y ago
> comes with that little asterisk: *with high-speed internet access By the end of the decade, I expect that >90% of humanity will have this (or be able to easily afford it).
ippisl 15y ago
Even in africa , for places where bandwidth is expensive, once the community got computers, or android phones, it's pretty easy and cheap to distribute some content from khan or TED,without needing internet access for each person.

jpadvo 15y ago

The fact that this will be offered for credit at accredited universities with physical campuses is really intriguing. Often efforts like this have difficulty getting the institutional buyin that will lead to real change. As a side note, they could have chosen a name with a better acronym -- FU already has meaning attached to it for a lot of people.

AltIvan 15y ago
They are TFU i guess.
illume 15y ago
Heh. That's up there with the university once known as the Cassurina University of Northern Territory. They changed their name pretty quickly.
dorian-graph 15y ago
I imagine the people who wouldn't be able to get past the 'FU' thing probably wouldn't bother going to university anyway. It's like with the Wii, we all had a little giggle when we first heard it and then we got over it.. except for those few people..
- saurik 15y ago
  It isn't the people going to the university that will be the problem: it will be trying to explain what you are doing to your parents, employers, or friends. I got my degree from "The College of Creative Studies", which has one of the top physics programs in the nation; this is understood by grad programs you talk to, but all those people external to the academic process just look at you as if you are insane, and went to some kind of lala-happy program.

motters 15y ago

There is a big opportunity here, because higher education seems to be facing a crisis. Due to big increases in the costs of university education, combined with the reasonable reticence of students to take on large amounts of debt which may take decades to repay, for the first time it seems possible that the next generation may be less well educated than their parents - unless something changes.

BlackJack 15y ago

I can't say for Harvard or Bard, but at Yale, this course is a seminar. You can watch the videos whenever you want, but you also have physical class on Wednesday from 3:30 to 5:20, where you'll discuss the readings and the professors (Peter Salovey and Adam Glick) will try to make you think in an interdisciplinary way. Although the online aspect and all that is great, I think this is novel for another reason. Charlie Munger, vice chair of Berkshire Hathaway, has often talked about building a latticework of mental models i.e. take the big ideas from various disciplines, and use those models to solve problems. This course is basically a physical version of what he's espoused his whole life. I'm definitely going to try to get into this course - sounds awesome!

100k 15y ago

> "Floating University subscriptions will also be available to the general public with full course packs and video lectures via the Internet." Any idea what this is going to cost?

re_chief 15y ago
Thought it was kind of interesting that they didn't have any sort of cost in the FAQ section. I would think that that would be a frequently asked question.
- tryitnow 15y ago
  Yep, the lack of transparency just made me think "next" - I'll be looking into Stanford's free AI courses. Or the many other free courses out there. I couldn't figure out what FU's value prop is that makes it worth $495. Maybe "FU" is an appropriate name after all.
shadowsun7 15y ago
The individual subscription fee is $495 and lectures are available for up to 6 months from the date of purchase. http://floatinguniversity.com/courses http://floatinguniversity.com/courses

Astrohacker 15y ago

Cool. But is the future of education really having professors give lectures, except now it's online? Here are some brainstorm ideas for alternatives: * Allow anyone, not just existing professors, create a course on any topic and of any length. May the best teachers win. * Allow and encourage students to make their own lectures and courses. * Enable and encourage two-way communication. Perhaps people can post responses to other people's lectures.

jayfuerstenberg 15y ago
Good ideas but I think you're describing the internet as it exists in general. Youtube is only one-way I suppose but it facilitates channels like the Khan Academy ( http://www.youtube.com/user/khanacademy http://www.youtube.com/user/khanacademy ).
- Astrohacker 15y ago
  YouTube is good, but it isn't really designed for education. How can you give out assignments with YouTube? What about paying teachers? A YouTube-for-education would be explicitly designed to bring people together for learning purposes. And money would probably need to be involved... people should be paid to teach. After watching some free samples, students would probably be willing to pay to watch videos from some teachers, or to have their work critiqued by those teachers.
keiferski 15y ago
Those don't address the credential aspect of a degree program.
- Astrohacker 15y ago
  I don't think credentials are very meaningful. An alternative is to let students simply display all their work on the internet. Employers can check out their work to determine their eligibility for a job.
  - 15y ago

spartango 15y ago

Interesting. Although I wonder why the topics are so heavily biased toward the humanities... One would think that a view of the sciences would be equally important.

Hyena 15y ago
Probably because Khan Academy is heavily biased towards mathematics and OCW heavily biased towards science/engineering.
- dagw 15y ago
  But Khan is basically only high school level material, and doesn't really compete or overlap with anything offering university level courses.
  - Hyena 15y ago
    True, but there's nothing that keeps it from expanding higher and it has all the resources for it already in place. I'd think Khan Academy is likely to slowly become the major mathematics provider. Possibly also finance, depends on whether they expand those sections.

jeffreymcmanus 15y ago

I'm confused as to how this works. Is it just pre-recorded videos? The site says "no homework, no tests". If you just watch the videos, how does it reinforce what you've learned? Is there any interaction with the instructor?

szany 15y ago
There's an in-class presentation and a final paper, according to the syllabus: http://floatinguniversity.com/files/Great%20Big%20Ideas%20-%20Course%20Syllabus.pdf http://floatinguniversity.com/files/Great%20Big%20Ideas%20-%...

spiffistan 15y ago

$495 for 12 videos about why you should think outside the box? I dunno man...

dagw 15y ago
And for your $495, you don't even get to download keep the videos. You get to view them for 6 month. I guess if I want to review them again next year I'm out an additional $495. I was totally stoked when I read about the concept, but $40 a video for time limited streaming just made the whole thing a lot less interesting.