Lophocolea heterophylla: U.S. Chief Technology Officer at Computer History Museum, U.S. Goal to Increase Number of College Graduates, World Univ & Sch

Dear World Universitians,

I heard U.S. Chief Technology Officer speak at the Computer History Museum last night near Silicon Valley.

Aneesh Chopra is very PRO Technology, Innovation & Education, not surprisingly, and likes worlduniversity.wikia.com which we talked about afterward for about 2 minutes. I'd like to explore how he might let people know about WUaS - he's a very engaging and enthusiastic politician - as well as possibly even teach a class online, (for the time after he stops working closely with Barack Obama?) ... I'll inquire.

Another friend says: went to hear Aneesh Chopra, Obama's new CTO at CHM lastnite... smart and enthusiastic... 'policy entrepreneur' is how he defines his job.

The government is trying to increase the number of college graduates in the country, and in our brief conversation, FREE degrees seemed to have appeal to him.

This federal government is making a lot of monies available for education and technology, too.

I think it was a good meeting.


Sincerely,
Scott




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Dear Aneesh,

It was very nice to meet you yesterday evening at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, and thank you for your fascinating presentation, as well as your promotion of information technologies in so many spheres as a policy entrepreneur.

World University and School - like Wikipedia with MIT Open Course Ware, Berkeley Webcast, and facilitating people-to-people teaching and learning - is moving toward free, online degree-granting. Here, for example, is World University & School's free PH.D. section with the free, 
Harvard, doctoral degree in education for 25 students in 2011 and 2012, for which any 
student would have to move to Cambridge, MA: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#Free_Ph.D.s
WUaS. World University and School seeks to partner with great universities in multiple ways for teaching and learning content, as well. And World University and School would gladly help facilitate free, online AA degrees, for example. (As I mentioned yesterday, WUaS incorporated as a 
nonprofit, educational organization in California this spring, and is moving toward accreditation).

 Like free K-12 public education in the U.S., and the free library system here, WUaS thinks that the Executive Office of the President, and you as Chief Technology Officer, will much more readily achieve your goal of 8 million college degrees in some years by making them available on the world wide web for free, perhaps as a small experiment to begin, which is also World University & School's mission.

World University and School's wiki (editable web pages) with a course-, and eventual degree, focus, makes it unique among online, open, educational projects. And as a kind of meta-directory, WUaS has already aggregated much of the best, free, online, educational content available.

WUaS presently needs funding, with some urgency, actually.

And World University and School would also like to explore ways in which you, in your role as CTO, might let people know about WUaS. WUaS already makes so many, open, free resources available here: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University. Click through WUaS to explore all of it.

To give you an idea of how WUaS works, World University and School would also like to explore whether you personally might like to teach a class online, perhaps in preparation for a career in academia (at Harvard?) after your current career in government. World University and School makes it easy for anyone to teach a course they would like to teach to their web camera, or interactively in a virtual world, like Second Life. Here are some open, individual courses at World University and School, some taught by Harvard faculty and others taught by knowledgeable individuals: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#Individual_courses.

I found your talk inspiring yesterday evening. Let's continue the fascinating conversation you began yesterday evening at the Computer History Museum about technology and open education, by developing World University and School as a resource to help the American people, and, indeed, people around the world.

What ways would you suggest we further carry on this conversation?

Thank you again.

Sincerely,
Scott









(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/08/lophocolea-heterophylla-us-chief.html - August 18, 2010)