When the free market comes into play it's called spec work. When through-the-roof fees need to be justified it's called pitching. I love design but the hypocrisy in the game is amazing sometimes.
Indeed, a bunch of New York executive wages over an 18 month period start to add up. Khoi Vin (former art director) pondered this on his blog a few weeks ago [1], citing it as one of the reasons he resigned his post.
Hype. If they say it's big it must be so. $41mm funding announcement and the fanfare with it, they need a lot of early traction fast. And it seems this is how they are going about it.
I think the last thing that needs to happen is the dehumanization of the education system. What the Khan Academy seems to demonstrate so far is that the careful application of technology in the classroom has a positive effect on young students to understand and digest information. A middle ground should be sought, it should be complementary and help drive innovation in education - but definitely not replace humans.
Depends on what level you are talking about. There is close to zero advantage to having a lecturer explain first year calculus to 450 students. That practice should be eliminated immediately and replaced with Khan (or Khan like technology).
It's embarrassing how many higher level education institutions haven't cracked that part of the puzzle. Save the budget and populate the Math Labs with (reasonably paid) Grad Students where the students are doing exercises, instead of paying (a typically horrible at presentations) mathematics professor to "Teach".
Agreed. A major benefit that seems to be recurrent in the pilot schemes is the data the Khan system provides, and how that allows teachers to interact with students in a more personal and efficient maner. The net result being less kids fall behind. However that also shows the need for the human interaction.
Well you succeeded as far as I'm concerned. I like to tinker with GAE quite a bit and have ideas about hosting my next (serious) project on it, thanks for posting.
AIGA even have a position on it. http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/position-spec-work