網絡教育的變革與反思

????兩年前，我見過普加??？?，當時她已創立了促進師生間課堂討論的協作平臺Piazza。起初，這個平臺只是在斯坦福大學（Stanford）的一些學生中使用。如今，Piazza已被斯坦福大學、普林斯頓大學（Princeton）以及麻省理工學院（MIT）等頂尖大學所采用，并在全球25個國家得到應用。獲得紅杉資本（Sequoia Capital）和貝西默風投（Bessemer Ventures）的750萬美元融資后，32歲的?？栂Ｍ茉诮逃母镏写笳谷_。但在其他企業家涉足這一極具變革性的領域之前，她認為我們需要重新審視技術在教育中發揮的作用。根據對達沃斯世界經濟論壇（the World Economic Forum）的感悟，?？栐诒酒诳妥恼轮蟹窒砹怂挠^點。

????作為Piazza的創始人兼首席執行官，我習慣于為高等教育中出現的技術搖旗吶喊。在達沃斯目睹了大家對網絡教育近乎烏托邦式的樂觀后，我發現自已要扮演一個很不習慣的角色：牛虻。

????從達沃斯回來后，我一直在醞釀著自己對這個領域的異端邪說：教育是一段個人旅程，而現在我們為學生提供的網絡內容卻雜亂無章。

????我在得到丈夫的允許后才來到達沃斯，而且我也不是天生就適合這一行。我在印度長大成人，其間有七年時間我從未與家人之外的任何一個男孩子說過話。我們鎮上很多女孩子16歲就嫁人了，一些女孩子幾乎不怎么識字。我為什么能擺脫這種生活呢？因為，我父親受過教育，他要求我學習。他為我描繪了一種我從未見過的生活，一種不困囿于高墻大院的生活。如果沒有他的指引，我就不可能到印度理工學院（Indian Institute of Technology）求學。

????在達沃斯論壇上，銷售力網絡公司（Salesforce.com）首席執行官馬克?貝尼奧夫和社交網站Facebook前總裁、音樂交換網站納普斯特聯合創始人肖恩?帕克主持了一次圓桌會議，關注的問題是：“你希望看到怎樣一種全球變化？”我們這個座談小組關注的是教育問題，大家都一致認為網絡課程潛力巨大?！邦嵏病焙汀白兏铩笔潜蝗藗冾l頻鄭重提及的兩個詞。當時有人問我——因為我至少已經走出了俗話所說的小土屋——網絡教育是否本可以開闊我童年時期的視野。

????我的回答只能是否定的?；貞浳业慕逃龤v程，真正重要的是，在許多關鍵時刻，我能憧憬自己的未來。它往往是得益于良師的幫助，或者至少得到過某個先驅的啟發。這就是我的個人經歷，好在有過他人的指引。這些指引比上任何特定課程或學習任何教育內容都更為重要，正是這些指引使我擺脫了像許多人那樣早早嫁人和陷于貧困的命運。

????發達國家的人對第三世界國家的學生有一種奇怪的、不切實際的看法：只要把教育內容擺在他們面前，他們就會像災荒時期收到空降食物那樣饑不擇食地吞下去。

????I met Pooja Sankar two years ago after she founded Piazza, a collaboration platform that facilitates class discussion among students and teachers. Starting with a few students at Stanford, Piazza now is used at top universities such as Stanford and Princeton and MIT and in 25 countries around the world. With $7.5 million in funding from Sequoia Capital and Bessemer Ventures, Sankar, 32, aspires to play a key role in the transformation of education. But before other entrepreneurs get too revolutionary in this field, she thinks we need to reassess technology's role in education. Following an epiphany at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Sankar shares her view in this Guest Post.

????As the founder and CEO of Piazza, I'm used to cheerleading for technology in higher education. But in the midst of an almost utopian optimism about online education that I witnessed in Davos, I found myself playing an unaccustomed role: gadfly.

????And since returning from Davos, I've distilled my heresies to this: Education is a personal journey, and right now we're offering students an online jumble.

????I rode into Davos on a spouse's pass, and I'm not to the manner born. I came of age in interior India, where for seven years I didn't talk to a single boy outside my family. Many girls in my town were married off by their parents at 16, some of them barely literate. The reason I got out? My father, an educated man, demanded that I study. He painted a picture of a life that was different from the one I could see just beyond the wall that separated our home from the street. Without that guidance, I would never have gone to IIT, Indian Institute of Technology.

????At a session in Davos, Salesforce.com (CRM) CEO Marc Benioff and Sean Parker of Facebook (FB) and Napster fame hosted a roundtable focused on the question, "What's one global change you'd want to see?" Our panel focused on education, and all agreed that online courses showed great potential. The words "disrupt" and "revolutionize" were spoken solemnly and often. Then someone asked me -- as the person at the table least removed from the proverbial mud hut -- whether online education would have broadened my childhood horizons.

????I had to answer, "No." What was really most important in my education was that at key moments, I was able to envision to the next step. And usually I did it with the help of a mentor, or at least someone who'd taken that next step before I had. The journey was personal, but guided. And that, more than access to any particular class or bit of educational content, was what saved me from the fate of early marriage and poverty that befell so many others.

????In the wealthy world, we have an oddly romantic view of students in the global south: If we can just put educational stuff in front of them, they'll devour just as they would eat food if we airdropped it in during a famine.