Peter Norvig: The 100,000-student classroom

Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast

翻译人员: Yuguo Zhang 校对人员: Ricki Xie

Everyone is both a learner

每个人都既是学生

and a teacher.

又是老师

This is me being inspired

这就是我当时被我

by my first tutor,

第一个导师所启蒙

my mom,

我的妈妈

and this is me teaching

而这是我教授的

Introduction to Artificial Intelligence

“人工智能入门”课程

to 200 students

给200多名学生

at Stanford University.

在斯坦福大学

Now the students and I

学生和我都

enjoyed the class,

非常享受这门课

but it occurred to me

但是我突然想到

that while the subject matter

虽说这门课的主题内容

of the class is advanced

是非常高级的

and modern,

并且现代的

the teaching technology isn't.

但是讲授方法却非如此

In fact, I use basically

实际上，我基本上用了

the same technology as

和14世纪教师

this 14th-century classroom.

一样的方法来上课

Note the textbook,

课本上的笔记

the sage on the stage,

站在讲台上的智者

and the sleeping guy

以及正在后面

in the back. (Laughter)

睡觉的学生

Just like today.

就跟今天一样

So my co-teacher,

因此我的同科目老师

Sebastian Thrun, and I thought,

Sebastian Thrun和我认为

there must be a better way.

一定有一种更好的方法（来传授知识）

We challenged ourselves

我们挑战自我

to create an online class

决心去创建一个在线网上课程

that would be equal or better

这门课程将会和我们在

in quality to our Stanford class,

斯坦福的课程质量媲美甚至更好

but to bring it to anyone

而且还能给来自世界各地的人们

in the world for free.

免费学习的机会

We announced the class on July 29th,

我们在7月29号宣布了这项课程

and within two weeks, 50,000 people

在两周之类，50000个人

had signed up for it.

已经报名参加了

And that grew to 160,000 students

最后参加人数达到160,000个学生

from 209 countries.

各自从209个国家而来

We were thrilled to have

我们实在是非常激动

that kind of audience,

去拥有这样的观众

and just a bit terrified that we

而且还有点害怕因为

hadn't finished preparing the class yet. (Laughter)

我们还没准备好课程安排呢……（笑声）

So we got to work.

因此我们加劲工作

We studied what others had done,

我们研究了其他人已经做过的东西

what we could copy and what we could change.

计划了哪些东西该继承和哪些需要改变

Benjamin Bloom had showed

Benjamin Bloom曾表明

that one-on-one tutoring works best,

一对一的家教效果最好

so that's what we tried to emulate,

因此我们就准备这样模拟

like with me and my mom,

就跟我和我妈妈一样

even though we knew

虽然我们都知道这实际将是

it would be one-on-thousands.

是一对数千人的课程

Here, an overhead video camera

在这里，一个在头顶的摄像头

is recording me as I'm talking

正在录制我

and drawing on a piece of paper.

在纸上画画的方式讲课的过程

A student said, "This class felt

一个学生说：“这门课

like sitting in a bar

就像是在酒吧和一个

with a really smart friend

很聪明的朋友坐着

who's explaining something

这个朋友还会向你解释一些

you haven't grasped, but are about to."

你还不是很懂，但将要懂的东西

And that's exactly what we were aiming for.

而这个效果就是我们想要达到的

Now, from Khan Academy, we saw

现在，我们可以在Khan Academy看到

that short 10-minute videos

这些短短10分钟的视频

worked much better than trying

这些东西比那些在一个小屏幕

to record an hour-long lecture

播放足足一小时的视频讲座

and put it on the small-format screen.

效果要好多了

We decided to go even shorter

我们决定了把他们弄得再短些

and more interactive.

更有互动性

Our typical video is two minutes,

我们的视频一般来说大约2分钟长度

sometimes shorter, never more

有时候更短，有时候比6分钟

than six, and then we pause for

长一点,然后我们暂停，

a quiz question, to make it

出一道小问答题，使它变得像

feel like one-on-one tutoring.

一对一的家教

Here, I'm explaining how a computer uses

在这，我在解释一个电脑如何

the grammar of English

理解英语语法

to parse sentences, and here,

去解析一个句子，而在这儿呢

there's a pause and the student

这里有一个暂停让学生来

has to reflect, understand what's going on

回忆，理解刚才讲的是什么

and check the right boxes

然后在回到课程之前

before they can continue.

选择正确的答案

Students learn best when

学生在积极主动参与时

they're actively practicing.

获得的学习效果最好

We wanted to engage them, to have them grapple

我们想让他们参与其中，让他们消除

with ambiguity and guide them to synthesize

迷惑并且使他们去自己

the key ideas themselves.

总结这些关键的理念

We mostly avoid questions

像“这有个公式，现在

like, "Here's a formula, now

告诉当X是2的时候

tell me the value of Y

Y值是多少”

when X is equal to two."

我们通常不出这种问题

We preferred open-ended questions.

我们更喜欢开放性的问题

One student wrote, "Now I'm seeing

一个学生写到：“我总能看见

Bayes networks and examples of

贝叶斯网络和博弈论的例子

game theory everywhere I look."

到处都是。”

And I like that kind of response.

我很喜欢那样的回馈

That's just what we were going for.

这正是我们所想实现的

We didn't want students to memorize the formulas;

我们不想要学生去背公式

we wanted to change the way

我们想去改变他们

they looked at the world.

看待世界的方式

And we succeeded.

最后我们成功了

Or, I should say, the students succeeded.

或者我应该说，学生们成功了

And it's a little bit ironic

不过有点讽刺的是，

that we set about to disrupt traditional education,

我们差点就破坏了传统式的教育

and in doing so, we ended up

因为这原因，我们最后

making our online class

将我们的在线课程做了调整

much more like a traditional college class

比起其他的在线课程来说，

than other online classes.

这更像一个传统大学的课程

Most online classes, the videos are always available.

大多数在线课程的视频都是

You can watch them any time you want.

可以随便看的

But if you can do it any time,

但是如果你可以随时看，

that means you can do it tomorrow,

那就以为你可以明天再看

and if you can do it tomorrow,

而如果你可以明天看，

well, you may not ever

嗯…那你估计说不定

get around to it. (Laughter)

就不看了

So we brought back the innovation

因此呢我们带来的革新方式

of having due dates. (Laughter)

就是有截止日期。（笑声）

You could watch the videos

你可以观看这些视频

any time you wanted during the week,

在这周的任何时候

but at the end of the week,

但是在周末之前，

you had to get the homework done.

你必须得完成你的作业

This motivated the students to keep going, and it also

这就会激励学生去不断地去学习，

meant that everybody was working

这还意味着每个人都在

on the same thing at the same time,

在相同的时间内学习相同的内容

so if you went into a discussion forum,

当你进入一个讨论区的时候

you could get an answer from a peer within minutes.

你可以在几分钟内从你的同学中得到解答

Now, I'll show you some of the forums, most of which

现在，我要给你看几个这样的论坛，

were self-organized by the students themselves.

大多数的这些讨论都是学生们自己组织的

From Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng, we learned

从Daphne Koller和Andrew Ng这里，我们学习到

the concept of "flipping" the classroom.

关于如何“贯通”课程的的方法

Students watched the videos

学生们先自己观看这些视频

on their own, and then they

然后他们再

come together to discuss them.

聚集到一起进行讨论

From Eric Mazur, I learned about peer instruction,

从Eric Mazur，我了解到了关于同学指导的观点

that peers can be the best teachers,

同伴可以成为最好的老师

because they're the ones

因为他们了解类似处境的人

that remember what it's like to not understand.

的遇到困难时是什么样子的

Sebastian and I have forgotten some of that.

有些东西Sebastian和我都快忘记了

Of course, we couldn't have

不过当然，我们没法

a classroom discussion with

和成千上万的学生进行

tens of thousands of students,

课堂讨论

so we encouraged and nurtured these online forums.

因此我们便鼓励和培养这些在线的讨论模式

And finally, from Teach For America,

最后，从“Teach For America（为美国而执教）”这个项目中

I learned that a class is not

我学习到了上课不光是为了

primarily about information.

知识的传授

More important is motivation and determination.

更重要的培养积极性和决心

It was crucial that the students see

学生们应当理解到

that we're working hard for them and

我们在为他们努力而且他们自己

they're all supporting each other.

也在相互支持，这是很关键的

Now, the class ran 10 weeks,

到目前为止，这个课程已经进行了10周了,

and in the end, about half of the 160,000 students watched

最后，一万六个学生中的一半都会

at least one video each week,

至少在每周看一个视频

and over 20,000 finished all the homework,

而且超过两万人完成了他们的作业

putting in 50 to 100 hours.

投入了50-100个小时

They got this statement of accomplishment.

他们最后收获到了这个结业证明

So what have we learned?

那么我们又学到了什么呢？

Well, we tried some old ideas

我们用了一些旧的观念

and some new and put them together,

和一些新的想法并且把他们结合在了一起

but there are more ideas to try.

不过将来还有很多想法可以去尝试

Sebastian's teaching another class now.

Sebastian正在教授另一个课程

I'll do one in the fall.

我在秋季也准备教授一个

Stanford Coursera, Udacity, MITx

斯坦福的Coursera，Udacity，以及麻省理工的MITx

and others have more classes coming.

还有很多其他的课程也要推出

It's a really exciting time.

这真的非常激动人心

But to me, the most exciting

不过对我来说，最激动人心的就是

part of it is the data that we're gathering.

是那些我们收集到的数据

We're gathering thousands

我们收集了

of interactions per student per class,

上千次的互动记录，还有每个学生在每堂课中

billions of interactions altogether,

共数十亿次的交流

and now we can start analyzing that,

我们现在可以开始分析这些数据

and when we learn from that,

而当我们能从中探索到什么

do experimentations,

并做些尝试时

that's when the real revolution will come.

真正的变革就会发生

And you'll be able to see the results from

你就能够看到从新一代学生

a new generation of amazing students.

身上的精湛成果

(Applause)

（鼓掌喝彩）