"The 100,000 global classroom"

Three students take a break from running around Stirling university campus while I listen to a TED talk on the future of education during my daily walk.
 
 (Having missed out on university I take a vicarious pleasure in enjoying the technology which allows me to listen to world-class speakers while walking around this campus in Scotland).
 
Today Peter Norvig from Stanford University is speaking about  "The 100,000 global classroom".
While his subject matter- Machine Learning,- is new, the method of teaching had not changed since the 14th century.
 
He made his point with an illustration from a medieval manuscript: “ a textbook, some students, a sage on the stage and even a sleeping student at the back of the class.”
 
 He wanted to find out if there was not a better method of teaching.
So he designed a free course and advertised it online.
 
160,000 students signed up from 209 countries.

The  experiment  made a number of  surprising discoveries on the way we learn. 
Many students currently in lockdown must be questioning the current educational model too.