Beagle Blog

Coursera Present and Coursera Future

Some years ago a couple of MIT undergrads told me they no longer went to lecture, because the lectures were videotaped and put online. Watching the lectures online was actually better than watching in person, because they could watch at 1.5x speed!

What do we really need to be better teachers?

Compare and contrast: (1) students leaping out of their seats with blazing eyes and changing their lives in the movie “Dead Poets Society,” and (2) the bored, inward gazes or sleeping heads of students that many of us see in classrooms across the…

The Human Context in Learning

I am a mathematician and math teacher and I’ve often reflected on the question: What is mathematics? You would think I have a clear and ready answer to that question, but I don’t really. If you asked me that question I would likely give some esoteric answer, the same answer…

We live in different time zones and we work on different things. Are we really a team?

7.4 Billion

I tend to believe, perhaps a bit naively, that everyone has more or less the same goals for Planet Earth. Most people, I think, want to see a peaceful world. They want to be able to live comfortably and happily. They want to live without fear of hunger, thirst, or sickness. And, of course, they want to…

The Joy and the Fear of Learning

How to Run an Undergraduate Research Course Using Inquiry

High Hedonistic and Low Fatalistic

The importance of optimism and agency in life and in education

Reprinted with permission from Visions, Ventures, Escape Velocities: A Collection of Space Futures (2017) Ed. Ed Finn and Joey Eschrich

What Do Corporate Teamwork and Higher Education Have in Common?

Over the past three months, we’ve been talking with more and more people about our online learning tool. And something interesting has happened. We’ve started working with a few great higher education partners (more on…

How We Teach Problem-Solving, or, A Step-by-Step Guide for Having Questions Lead Your Learning Experience