The Daily Riff - BE SMARTER. ABOUT EDUCATION.

by C.J. Westerberg

Fascinating insight into what Bill Gates is reading and watching these days, along with his views about education in the second half of clip.  Gates admits he reads about 2-3 hours per day, which includes plenty of energy/climate/sustainability titles, yet also watches one and one-half to two hours of on-line video per day, such as David Christian's Big History on Teach12.  

At the 5:30 mark, he switches the talk toward education, specifically about how we teach Math in this country (badly);  what absurdly over-packed textbooks we use (sound familiar?);  how we teach the same math concepts over and over without real mastery; with the resulting outcome where 60% of our high school graduates are in need of remedial Math before college level with  textbooks that are even fatter than high school level.

Gates also talks about the future of on-line learning and accreditation, which he predicts will become an assessment of the knowledge and skills obtained, not necessarily having a diploma received exclusively from the in-class version of the marquee-name institution like MIT and Harvard.   Gates describes a scenario that certainly presents a more democratic, more opportunity-for-all scenario, including the use of free on-line lectures, such as Khan Academy and  which will not only become better in their content and production value, but in their curation of specific content.

Whether you like Gates or not, it's an interesting visit inside his brain.  Let us know what you think.

Why Our Kids Don't Get Math
Why Other Countries Do Better in Math
Jeb Bush on Morning Joe:  Digital Learning Takes Center Stage
School of One: Blended Learning & Mastery
Pushing Back on Mediocre Professors
Visions of Math: What Content Should We Teach?
Singapore Math Demystified!
Bill Gates on The Learning Ethic and Charter Schools

Published The Daily Riff January 2011