38 comments

[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 86.5 ms ] thread
How are the teachers motivated?
karma points
if only one could buy food and shelter with those...
Perhaps the best way to find good teachers is to find people who do it for social reasons, to have an impact, or for the appreciation of their peers, rather than the money. Even if it's on a part-time basis.

I'm not sure part-time would work for elementary school, but past that? I think it would work.

On that note I did come across Udemy[1] the other day - which is something similar and looks like it will let you offer paid-for courses in the future (paid courses seem on a limited trial atm).

1. http://www.udemy.com/

I wonder if it would be possible to build a site like Reddit where karma points can be exchanged for real money.

Maybe if users have to pay a subscription fee to gain access... The company takes a cut, answerers get a cut.

I bet it could work.

I'd rather assume it wouldn't. (Mainly for my on selfish ... err .. 'free'-loving self)
Some people can leverage karma points into employment. It usually is a decent proxy for determining that someone is a known and valuable member of a community, which counts for a lot.
I be dammed if I can remember his name now, but there was a famous mathematician, who used to travel around to different universities, sleeping there and working on papers with the other professors.

So yeah, it is possible.

Paul Erdos, the peripatetic mathematician.
Paul Erdos (pronounced Air-dish).

He would find the professor's home, and announce "My brain is open," and they would work together.

Eventually they will be redeemable for Whuffies.
Your statement reminds me in a way of Diogenes of Sinope[1]:

The most scandalous of these activities involves his masturbation in the marketplace, to which he responded he wished it were as easy to relieve hunger by rubbing an empty stomach.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogenes_of_Sinope

The pleasure of writing, and/or bragging rights -- the same way that Wikipedia came to be what it is.
Their passion for their craft/hobby/skill?

I'd gladly sit down and pass on everything I know about programming (not a lot!), unix, amateur radio, aviation etc because as long as it's an interest of mine, I love talking about it. Having someone willing and/or eager to listen is even more motivational.

Because it's cheaper and has a shorter feedback loop than other ways of mastering a subject.

Have always felt teaching was one of the best ways to learn. Good students will force you to respect many of the fundamentals that you never had the patience for in school or when you're working in your field day-to-day.

I'd gladly teach everything I know to somebody. :)
How are blog writers motivated?
Ad revenue.
It's a god damn miracle. Calculus is pretty fucking important and it's also easy if you're not a moron. So I'll teach you some of that shit.

Oh dear god.

I'd sign up purely for the entertainment value.
Yo dawg, I heard you like maths so I put a function in yo function so you can derive while you derive
Exactly. I saw that and thought to myself, "I'm so lucky to live in an age with ocw.mit.edu"
This is great. If the teachers turn out to be good this will become a pretty nifty resource for learning. I hope it turn out to be like Khan Academy but with a lot more teachers.
coming next: 3 words that should terrify...

University of 4chan

Many of these I'm sure where spurred on by CarlH's C++ Course http://www.highercomputingforeveryone.com/ (used to be on reddit) which is a great resource for learning C++. The interactive forum style of reddit makes teaching and mentoring easy.

This is a great idea.

If you search for Carl Herold on Google the first result is a rip-off report, which he claims is fake. Whether or not it is (I believe it is fake) his services to the online community are not to be ignored, and many on reddit have tried improving his pagerank for highercomputingforeveryone.com

To anyone who appreciates Carl Herold's work: please spread word about http://www.highercomputingforeveryone.com/ and post the link when the opportunity arises, not only to help others learn C++ but for Carls sake, he really is a true altruist.

I'm not seeing any C++ there, both lessons focus on C. Am I missing something?
Excellent point I was wrong he focuses on C as someone higher up in the threat pointed out. My bad.
He's teaching C there, not C++ (though that'll happen eventually). It's the first tutorial that caused me to finally "get" C.*

*After the moment of clarity, I mostly thought "Oh, that's all? It's not complicated at all!" This applies to many things in life.

It does remind me of south harmon institute of technology in the movie "Accepted". But I can't understand how this will work, anyone care to explain?
i still don't get the redditness, someone care to explain