ezLearnz Blog

Wow Fred... sounds like you're describing our vision (post ezLearnz) :~)

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 13:51:21 -0500

Wow Fred... sounds like you're describing our vision (post ezLearnz) :~)

Knowledge trees: a Mechanism of Learning

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:12:00 -0400

This post is the second in a series on the subject of learning, where we take a look at the mechanism of learning, or building a foundation of knowledge.

To switch topics for a bit, let’s look at the mechanism of learning. In the example of mathematics, one usually learns in the following progression:

Arithmetic
Algebra
Calculus

Each of those subjects require the previous one as a prerequisite, and each has sub-units. So, by saying that algebra requires arithmetic as a prerequisite, we are really saying that you should know how to add, subtract, multiply, divide, etc. before trying to learn algebra (which itself is really a collection of math concepts).

Let’s represent this whole concept as trees of knowledge, with their connections being the prerequisites, and the nodes being the subjects (we can even refine this definition by observing that each subject is really a tree consisting of sub-units, etc). At first, there are a few essential subjects that everyone must learn; these subjects—reading, writing, ‘rithmetic—are a prerequisites to all the others that one might wish to learn.

So with this concept in place, we can make a few generalizations:

Everybody has a knowledge tree.

In our example from the last post, both Andrew and Sean have completed primary education and received a technical university degree. Sean is also completing his Master’s in philosophy.

There is also a global knowledge tree

It represents the sum of all human knowledge.

To learn more, one grows his knowledge tree by “grafting” on a branch.

Continuing the previous post’s example, a whole range of branch sizes exist:

In the first case, the required learning is simply a practical implementation of areas in which the guys have solid theoretical understanding. This is why it requires little in terms of time or energy.
In the second case, completely new areas of both theoretical and practical knowledge are required, so the knowledge trees have to grow by a substantial amount.
The third case is similar to the second, with more knowledge required, as well as proof to other people of one’s knowledge.

We can organize the knowledge tree by assigning meanings to the axes.

The following meanings can be assigned, although none are cut and dry:

Quantitative vs. qualitative (exact vs. vague in the graph above)
Purely abstract vs. only observational
Theoretical vs. practical
(Passive) understanding vs. (active) application
Level; depends on the prerequisite (this is the only one that can be easily parsed from current university/college syllabi.
A further complication of this kind of classification is a “child” of two disparate academic subjects. For example, you can have a history of philosophy, as well as a philosophy of history, and these are two different subjects.

For now, I am working on a classification of various subjects that is not assigned to an axis. I am using the Wikipedia’s page on academic disciplines as a starting point.

As an aside, is anyone aware of any academic research efforts in this area?

stepping back from ezLearnz and taking a 60km view on learning in general

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 10:24:00 -0400

I have been very bad at updating ezLearnz activities for the last several months. Sorry! Here’s a quick update: I have found a co-founder (Sean) and spent the summer with him developing ezLearnz and another app that he’s been working on. In September, we decided to take a step back and think about where we wanted to position our apps in the market. We ended taking many steps back, looking at learning in general, and coming up with a vision that is extremely ambitious. Over the next several posts, we’ll start a conversation on our thoughts and conclusions.

The Problem: People want to learn in order to do stuff

When people talk about learning something, they’re really talking about being able to do stuff (even if doing stuff is on an abstract level: one might want to learn philosophy, for example, in order to “do things” with the ideas and concepts of philosophy; or to simply have possession of a particular field of knowledge). Note: this discussion deliberately ignores those who are made to learn (some of those in school) or want to get a degree in order to be (more) employable (some of those in college/university). If the knowledge could just be uploaded to their head somehow, they wouldn’t worry about the learning. Unfortunately, that’s not the reality.

Here are some examples of people wanting to do stuff*.

Sean wants to learn Haml
Andrew wants to learn Hobo
- Context: both are Ruby on Rails developers; it would take them 1-5 hours to learn those programs
Andrew thinks 3D printers are cool; he wants to build one.
Sean thinks robots are awesome; he also wants to build one.
- Context: both have engineering degrees; however, it would take a 0.5-2 years of concentrated study for them to accomplish these things.
Sean has a dream of getting a philosophy PhD.
Andrew would love to one day get a PhD in molecular nanotechnology.
- Context: in both cases, 4-6 years would be required to achieve the degrees.

These examples of wanting to learn things range from the trivial to the epic, in terms of time and effort required to master them. All have one thing in common, however: they require that the guys in our (true) story add to their store of knowledge and skill.

The “problem” part stems from the lack of an underlying foundation for a particular field of knowledge: to take the first example, it would be meaningless for Andrew to learn Hobo without knowing Rails, or Ruby, or software engineering/computer science in general. This does not mean that Andrew cannot start learning Hobo, Rails, Ruby, and the tenets of computer science all at once; in fact, that is the path he took (except for Hobo). However, there were a lot of mental models that were constructed incorrectly and had to be painfully reconstructed as their falsehood came to light. A concenctrated curriculum of computer science in ruby, followed by rails, then hobo, would have taken less time and energy to complete, as compared to the ad-hoc learning path taken. So, in a sentence, content and structure are needed in this scenario.

Another need is the presence of community: it would be easier for Andrew to learn in a group of others enthusiastic about Hobo/Ruby on Rails, with an expert who would be able to answer questions about the subjects at hand.

Later, we will discuss the mechanisms of building a foundation of knowledge, and the solution that ezLearnz’ successor will offer.

*Names have been left unchanged to protect the integrity of the story

On Accreditation and Open Education

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 07:52:55 -0400

On Accreditation and Open Education:

Interesting discussion of the market segments of education in general

Earth Policy Institute: Increasing Equality by Educating Every Child

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:36:39 -0400

Earth Policy Institute: Increasing Equality by Educating Every Child

"… very few people work even 8 hours a day. You’re lucky if you get a few good hours in between..."

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:53:30 -0400

“… very few people work even 8 hours a day. You’re lucky if you get a few good hours in between all the meetings, interruptions, web surfing, office politics, and personal business that permeates typical work day.”

- 37signals on their 4-day work week

Twenty-three Questions on Technology and Education

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:00:25 -0400

Twenty-three Questions on Technology and Education:

Great, thought-provoking articles with questions about education of the future. ezLearnz will offer answers to at least some of them…

WikiEducator

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 16:21:00 -0400

WikiEducator:

Sounds very interesting… this is something ezLearnz would be interested in joining.

Better-than-Ivy education for less than $8k a year

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 09:30:01 -0400

Better-than-Ivy education for less than $8k a year:

With ezLearnz, this cost could be even lower.

The 6-hour workday

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 14:22:00 -0400

This is only tangetially related to ezLearnz, but once ezLearnz is an established company, I’d love to implement this idea:

Everyone works 6 hours on their dayjob, i.e. for what they’re hired, with a 25% smaller salary. For those who have other interests (e.g. wanting to spend more time with their children), their jobs stops at this point (they can always join others later). For the others, there are the projects. All of these projects are voluntary and come from the employees themselves. If the company needs a specific project carried out, it hires people whose primary responsibility is that project; that is, their dayjob. Every project, which can be done using company resources, lasts one quarter, after which it is presented company-wide. At this point, several things happen:

If the company and the employee both like the project and agree to do so, it becomes “official”, and the company pays the employee a bonus for it; thus buying ownership of the project.
The employee may decide to continue the project as a startup, or a hobby. In this case, the company takes a certain percent equity depending on the situation and whether the company’s resource will continue being used.
There is no penalty if the project fails: it is a learning experience, and the employee can continue with something else.
A project can be worked on any number of people, both within and outside the company.

This work arrangement has several advantages:

An employee can explore different fields of knowledge by making something, and moving forward with a career in ways that are traditionally impossible or very hard.
The company retains a start-up-like atmosphere, and grows/diversifies its competencies; becoming a de-facto micro-venture capitalist at the seed stage.
The company draws top talent, who often prefer freedom and flexibility to financial compensation.

What do you think?

Update: To clarify the idea a bit, the company would take equity only if the employee(s) used company resources to develop the project. If, after a given quarter, the company didn’t like the project, but the employee(s) did, the employee(s) could continue working on their own, not using the company’s resources. In another scenario, if the project was on the verge of succeeding (or had a very good chance to do so), but additional funding was needed, the company could put in funding/introduce to the employee other investors for funding (similar to YC’s Demo Day). In my opinion, for this to work, everything must be done voluntarily and with a consensus on both the company’s and employee’s side.

U of Phoenix: potential competitor or buyer?

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:28:47 -0400

U of Phoenix: potential competitor or buyer?

The next iteration of ezLearnz UI is complete (for now)

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 00:35:00 -0400

Check out these mockups for the next iteration of ezLearnz:

Teacher views:

http://alpha.ezlearnz.com/subject-view-teacher
- http://alpha.ezlearnz.com/lesson-view-teacher [1]
  - http://alpha.ezlearnz.com/edit-lessonpart-view
  - http://alpha.ezlearnz.com/exam-view-teacher
    - http://alpha.ezlearnz.com/edit-q-and-a-view

Student views:

http://alpha.ezlearnz.com/subject-view-student
- http://alpha.ezlearnz.com/lesson-view-student
  - http://alpha.ezlearnz.com/exam-view-student-before
    - http://alpha.ezlearnz.com/exam-view-student-after

[1] The revision history box is something that I thought would be really neat, but I have no idea how to develop this, so this would be a farther-future feature.

As always, let me know what you think!

What's missing from open courses (hint: grades)

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 07:26:51 -0400

What's missing from open courses (hint: grades):

From the article:

“I recognize that — unlike sending video to my computer over the Internet — the marginal cost of giving me a grade is not zero.”

With smart programs being able to grade even essays with single-digit percent accuracy (not to mention multiple choice), this marginal cost does tend toward zero.

The Value of a Textbook

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 19:27:51 -0400

The Value of a Textbook:

ezLearnz will bring these costs down in the future

There is now a RoR plugin that adds social networking to your site...

Sat, 24 May 2008 14:53:07 -0400

Community Engine: A Social Networking Plugin for Ruby on Rails. I will be looking at this to add to ezLearnz… any opinions on it?

Next iteration of ezLearnz

Sun, 18 May 2008 19:50:00 -0400

I am starting to create mockups for the next iteration of ezLearnz. See the new lesson view here: http://alpha.ezlearnz.com/lesson-view. I will start adding the elements that have to do with the user: percent completed, grade recieved, etc.

If you have any suggestions or ideas, please let me know.

Interesting Organization

Mon, 12 May 2008 19:59:34 -0400

Interesting Organization

User Stories, Part III

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:34:13 -0400

Some time ago, I posted two scenarios for the ezLearnz vision, and promised the actual stories were to follow soon. So, here they are.

Story 1 (learner is part of an educational organisation): at the beginning of the semester, the professor sends a link to the custom “textbook” on ezLearnz that will be used for that semester. The subject contains selected chapters from the textbook publishers (not necessarily from one book) as well as the professor’s own content. The cost to the students is free (that is, it’s part of their tuition), and the university/college pays $25/student/semester. The students have the option to have the customized subject printed into a book for an additional $10 (paperback) or $25 (hardback). In addition to the content, the website allows collaborative note-taking in the form of comments on any part of the lesson or chapter in the given subject, as well as a tight feedback loop to the professor on how well a given lesson part was understood. After the semester, the users’ textbook(s) persist outside the organisation white-label, and are ad-supported (for $50/year pro membership, the user can get rid of the ads). This story would probably work really well for secondary education institutions and corporate training, reasonably well for high schools, and not very well for middle/elementary schools.

Story 2 (independent learner): Andrew decides he wants to build a web app using Ruby on Rails. Only one problem: he knows nothing about programming other than the obligatory one-semester C++ course he took in college. After googling “learn Ruby on Rails”, he clicks on the ezLearnz subject titled “Ruby on Rails 101”, reads through the content, and tries out what he learns in a Ruby-console widget embedded in the lesson, answering questions at the end of each part to test his knowledge. After finishing the subject, Andrew is offered to add more subjects that might interest him to his virtual book bag. He leaves off “Programming 101” off his curriculum, but opts to have ezLearnz include questions from the course in other quizzes that he might take. He adds “Object-Oriented Programming”, “Web App Development”, and “Introduction to Git” (the latter he is taking in a “class” with his co-founder, who is taking “User Interface Design” on ezLearnz, as well as other courses). Later, he might add “Web App Security” and “Web App scaling”, at which point ezLearnz will suggest that he complete the “Developer Certificate” with four more courses. (While the education was free, the signed, accredited certificate and official documentation costs $99.) Andrew decides not to upgrade his account to pro, since he wants to develop his app with the cost being as close to zero as possible. He doesn’t mind the ads, since that’s how he found out about and purchased the e text editor (textmate for windows), and got himself a “Micro” account on GitHub.com free for the first three months.

The new ezLearnz logo makes me happy, and although this might...

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 22:50:58 -0400

The new ezLearnz logo makes me happy, and although this might seem like a really trite basis for its quality, it does tell you something about it.

ezLearnz Blog

Wow Fred... sounds like you're describing our vision (post ezLearnz) :~)

Knowledge trees: a Mechanism of Learning

Everybody has a knowledge tree.

There is also a global knowledge tree

To learn more, one grows his knowledge tree by “grafting” on a branch.

We can organize the knowledge tree by assigning meanings to the axes.

stepping back from ezLearnz and taking a 60km view on learning in general

The Problem: People want to learn in order to do stuff

On Accreditation and Open Education

Earth Policy Institute: Increasing Equality by Educating Every Child

"… very few people work even 8 hours a day. You’re lucky if you get a few good hours in between..."

Twenty-three Questions on Technology and Education

WikiEducator

More articles about textbooks and their being pirated

Better-than-Ivy education for less than $8k a year

The 6-hour workday

U of Phoenix: potential competitor or buyer?

The next iteration of ezLearnz UI is complete (for now)

What's missing from open courses (hint: grades)

The Value of a Textbook

There is now a RoR plugin that adds social networking to your site...

Next iteration of ezLearnz

Interesting Organization

User Stories, Part III

The new ezLearnz logo makes me happy, and although this might...