Digital Delights

Thursday, March 21, 2013
5:00 - 7:00 p.m.
E14-633

Abstract

MOOCs (massive open online courses) and other forms of online learning have the potential to disrupt traditional classroom education—or to help us better understand how to exploit the many learning spaces students now inhabit.  This forum examines the ongoing migration of our analog practices into digital forms, looking at the ways in which digital technologies are transforming teaching and learning both on and off campus. What gaps in our curricula, or in our students’ experience, can be filled through technology?  What elements of teaching practice can be effectively translated into new media, and what aspects of “teaching” must be redefined? 

Speakers

Anant Agarwal the president of edX, a worldwide, online learning initiative of MIT and Harvard University, and a professor in MIT’s electrical engineering and computer science department.

Alison Byerly holds an interdisciplinary appointment as College Professor at Middlebury College and, during 2012-2013, she is a visiting scholar in the Literature Section at MIT. Recently, she was named the 17th president of Lafayette College in Easton, Pa. 

Daphne Koller is the Rajeev Motwani Professor in the computer science department at Stanford University and a founder of Coursera. Koller will join the conversation remotely.

Moderator: David Thorburn is Professor of Literature at MIT and has been the director of the MIT Communications Forum since 1994.