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Comment by jrs99 | Hacker News Reader

at the same time, MOOCs haven't even really started yet. Think about the first video games compared to what we have now.

Now think about the MOOCs we have now, and imagine what the 8th generation of MOOCs will look like. I can't imagine that. But I can imagine that it will possibly be more effective than the average teacher out there.

One of the greatest things about a MOOC is that your teacher can be a feynman caliber instructor. For a student that is willing to put in a lot of effort and has the desire to learn, what is going to better for you, a year's worth of pre-recorded feynman, or an average physics teacher? that might be up for debate, but personally, i'm going with feynman every single time.

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> Feynman caliber instructor

Feynman was brilliant, and I have a set of both his lectures for freshman and the ones he did on gravitation. But he was not a gifted teacher. He was a gifted learner. Those of us who can follow him can see an amazing mind at work. But gifted teachers will look into students minds and help them build new understandings.

The feynman lectures were aimed at the smartest students at caltech to keep them interested in physics. You have to consider who the audience was. If Feynman made a series of lectures for physics 101 where the majority of students had no physics experience (or a physics 101 for the general public), then he would make the material different. You can't look at one set of materials by Feynman for one group of students and conclude that he isn't a gifted teacher. There is a reason he is called the "Great Explainer." There is a reason people called him the Greatest Science Teacher while he was alive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXtnYnoutKk

Don't get me wrong; as I mentioned above I've found his lectures on both introductory physics and gravitation to be extremely enlightening, as did many of the Caltech students he taught (who were, by the way, just normal intro physics students, albeit at a selective university). His teaching can be highly effective when matched to the proper audience.

But that's just my point: there is no 0 to 100 scale of 'goodness' in teaching. And Feyman, regardless of his brilliance, doesn't sit at the top of hierarchy of teaching excellence. It's about fit between the student and the delivery the instructor. The Feynman lectures in video form can not be the pinnacle of physics instruction because they're fixed, not adaptable to the needs of different learners.

How am I getting you wrong? You said above that "he was not a gifted teacher."

You said "his teaching can be highly effective when matched to the proper audience." I disagree. He famously could teach extremely effectively to any level of audience.

You said Feynman "doesn't sit at the top of hierarchy of teaching excellence." Many people would disagree. Many people consider him the greatest physics teacher ever.

In terms of just the Feynman lectures in video form, Yes, I agree that they are limited. But I brought up Feynman because I believe a feynman caliber instructor alive today with the existing possibilities in software and video would definitely be able to make something very adaptable to many learners and easily more effective than the average teacher.

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