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About three years ago, I became the national coach of the United States International Math Olympian Team.
大约三年前 我成为了美国国际数学奥林匹克竞赛团队的主教练
I was very happy for a day thinking this is very interesting.
我那天很高兴 因为觉得那很有意思
But the next day I started to think that maybe I should do something with this.
但第二天我觉得我要开始去做一些事了
And I decided that I wanted to focus not only on training an elite group of students but
于是 我决定我不仅想致力于精英队的训练
trying to do as much as I could to boost the baseline mathematics capability in this entire country.
我还要尽我所能的去提高整个国家的基本数学能力
Unfortunately I had no money, no connections and only one person.
不幸的是 我没有钱 没有人际关系 只有我自己一人
So the only thing I knew was mathematics, algorithms and this probability and network theory.
确实 我知道的只有数学 算法概论和网络理论
So after thinking for some time I actually came to an idea which was based on using these
所以经过一番思考后 我萌生出了一个想法
core mathematical areas that I'd been working with to actually build a solution for education
这个想法基于我一直所致力于的数学领域核心
that could be delivered for free on every smart phone.
那就是去建立一个教育解决方案 将来它可以在每部智能手机上免费获得
This is actually the project I'm working on right now called Expii.
这就是我现在致力于研究开发的一个叫做Expii的项目
Our principle is that actually you could turn that smart phone into a virtual tutor which
我们的理念实际上是将智能手机变为一个虚拟家庭教师
automates what a person would get if they hired a tutor.
它能自动完成一个老师所能完成的任务
It wouldn't be as good as a tutor, but it could get very close.
它不能和一个真正的老师做得一样好 但却能很接近
And if you could deliver a free almost tutor on every smart phone in the United States
如果你能给美国的所有智能手机的用户都提供一个免费的老师
you might solve equity problems, you might be able to allow everyone, even if they live
你可能会解决掉平等问题 甚至你可能会让每个人 甚至那些生活在
in a different ZIP Code, to be able to access this tutor, which previously had only been
不同地区的人获得这种老师 这是以前仅仅
accessible to people who are quite wealthy.
那些相当富有的人才可能得到的
Because today the cost of a tutor is in the $30 an hour, $20 an hour, $50 an hour depending on how you look at it.
因为现在聘请一个家庭教师的费用是每小时30美元 20美元 50美元 这取决于你怎么看待他们
If you can reduce that to zero dollars an hour you would actually open up this accessibility to everyone.
如果你能将每个小时的费用降低到零 实际上你将会打开面向所有人的大门
If we realize that what we're trying to build is this virtual tutor then you actually, again,
如果我们意识到我们正尝试建造的是这个虚拟家庭教师
can start to conceptualize. Well，knowledge happens to be all of these concepts linked together in this network.
你的确会再次开始概念化 恰好知识是将所有概念一起连接在这个网络中
Then the problem becomes if you have this network how do you mathematically analyze where a person should go next?
那么问题来了 如果你有这个网络 你如何数学化地分析一个人接下来应该会去哪里
That can be done by using probability and statistics to find new ways to measure how
这个问题可以被解决 通过使用概率论和统计学 来找到新的方法去测量
much each person understands about each concept.
每个人怎样理解每个概念
Statistics, because the way that one would measure this is by asking them questions.
统计学 因为通过向人们提问的方式来进行测量
The experience someone has is they indicate what they want to learn and then the system
这些被提问到的人会说明自己的想法 说出想要学习的内容
starts to pitch questions at them, questions that they would need to know how to answer
然后系统向他们提问 问一些他们想知道如何去解答的问题
in order to understand what they claim they want to understand.
目的是为了理解用户声称他们想要知道的是什么
As the questions come, based on people's responses to the questions, the system adjusts the difficulty
随着相同问题出现次数的增加 基于人们对问题的回复 这个系统会调整问题的难度
of the questions and where the next questions come from in the same way that a human tutor
对于下一个相同的问题也是如此 系统会自动调整这问题的难度
adjusts their line of questioning based on whether a person is successful or not successful at the previous question.
同样的 人类老师也会调整学生的任务难度要求 基于一个人对之前问题的回答的正确与否
If the student reaches a point where they are hopelessly confused, meaning they don't
如果这个学生达到了一个无望的困惑的点 这意味着他们不
know how to do this question at all, then the system suggests that maybe they could read some explanations.
知道怎样回答这个问题 然后系统会建议他们可能要阅读一些说明
As you can see it turns the lesson flow upside down.
正如你所看的 系统会把整个课程流程颠倒
It's not that the class comes first and then the homework and then the exam, the first
这不是先课堂 接着作业 然后考试 首先
thing that comes is the exam essentially, followed by these practice problems, which adapt to
来临的事情基本上是考试 然后是实践问题 这会适应你的自身情况
you, followed by the class for anything that you don't know.
接着是课堂中任何你所不知道的事情
The idea is that this should cure boredom at the high end and also cure confusion at the struggling end.
这个想法可以使学霸用户不再觉得课程简单无聊 也可以使学渣用户不再漫无目的 不知所向
I actually started this with a brilliant Carnegie Mellon undergraduate student and then the
实际上 我是和一位才华横溢的卡内基梅隆大学的本科生一起开始这个项目的
two of us built this system together.
最后我们两个一起建立了这个系统
But when you start with no resources you need to think of ways to actually generate all
但是当项目启动后资源短缺时 你就不得不去想出一种方法
of this content in a way which doesn't cost enormous amount of resources.
一种生产所有内容的时候不会消耗大量资源的方法
And we took inspiration from Wikipedia.
我们也从维基百科汲取灵感
Our system aggregates all of the questions and explanations that anyone in the world
我们的系统聚集了所有问题和世界上任何想出一份力的人的回答
might want to contribute, uses voting like a website called Quora in order to find out
通过使用像quora那样的网站来找出
which content is strong, and uses statistics, the algorithms, to figure out what questions are easy and difficult.
什么内容是充实的 使用统计学 算法来弄清楚问题的难易程度
So actually in the end it turns out that it sucks in all of this content, it licenses
所以 实际上它最终涵盖了所有的内容 变成了现在这个样子
it all with the creative commons license like Wikipedia and then puts it all across on a
它许可所有具有创造性思维的人登陆平台 就像是维基百科
platform that anyone with a smart phone can use.
任何有智能手机的人都可以使用它
So as we keep developing these mathematics and algorithms, our goal is actually to deliver
所以随着我们继续发展这些数学和算法 我们的目标实际上是
free education to all of the world using a system that self-organizes in the same way
提供给全球免费的教育 通过使用一个自我管理的系统
that mathematics self-organizes from its basic assumptions.
这如同数学的自身组成其实源自于基本的假设
