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Keith Devlin’s Mathematical Thinking MOOC opens for registrations

By Peter Rowlett. Posted August 2, 2012

Prof Keith Devlin of Stanford University is running a Massively Open Online Course (MOOC) on Coursera, titled “Introduction to Mathematical Thinking“, with a stated goal to “help you develop a valuable mental ability – a powerful way of thinking that our ancestors have developed over three thousand years.”

MOOCs are big news, lately, with a popular AI course offered for free online by Sebastian Thrun from Stanford last year. Of course, distance learning and the ability to put course materials online are not new. “So”, asks Devlin in his May 2012 MAA column, “what has changed now?”

Devlin’s 21st C. mathematician that can’t be outsourced

By Peter Rowlett. Posted March 29, 2012

Keith Devlin has written a piece in the Huffington Post.

Repetitive tasks such as high-tech assembly-line manufacturing, airline reservations, and customer support are not the only things that can be outsourced in the flat world of the twenty-first century. So too can many less routine tasks that require a university education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
In particular, procedural mathematics (solving differential equations, optimizing systems of inequalities, etc.) can be outsourced.

Devlin argues that all mathematical skills taught at university can be outsourced to computers or other countries and says:

If we cannot compete, then we need to play a different game. Fortunately, that other game is one we already do well at: originality and innovation.