評論
打印
Why do we even need college, critics demand? Can't we do it all on our own?
曾有人批評說，我們要大學干什么？自己學不行嗎？
Peter Thiel, Silicon Valley entrepreneur, has urged students to drop out and has even subsidized them
硅谷的一位企業家彼得·蒂爾就曾教唆學生輟學，還給輟學的學生提供補貼，
including several of our undergraduates -- to leave college and pursue their individual entrepreneurial dreams.
其中就包括幾位我們學校的肄業生，他鼓動學生離開學校去追逐自己的企業家夢想。
After all, the logic goes, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates dropped out and they seem to have done OK.
他的邏輯是，馬克·扎克伯格和比爾·蓋茨就是輟學創業的，他們就發展的很不錯。
Well, yes. But we should remember: Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg had Harvard to drop out of.
事實的確如此。但請記住一件事 比爾·蓋茨和馬克·扎克伯格是從哈佛輟的學。
Harvard to serve as the place where their world-changing discoveries were born.
他們用來改變世界的發現就誕生于哈佛。
Harvard and institutions like it to train the physicists, mathematicians, computer scientists, business analysts, lawyers,
是哈佛和其他教育機構培養出了Facebook和微軟公司渴求的物理學家、數學家、計算機科學家、律師
and thousands of other skilled individuals upon whom Facebook and Microsoft depend.
以及成千上萬名其他技藝精湛的員工。
Harvard to enlighten public servants to lead a country in which Facebook, Microsoft, and companies like them can thrive.
是哈佛啟蒙了國家公務員，所以在他們領導下的這個國家里，Facebook、微軟和其他公司才能發展壯大。
Harvard to nurture the writers and filmmakers and journalists who create the storied "content" that gives the Internet its substance.
是哈佛培養了作家、制片人和記者，所以才有了那些知名的故事，互聯網才有內容可供瀏覽。
And we must recognize as well that universities have served as sources of discoveries
同樣地，我們還應該意識到，大學是各種發現的源頭，
essential to the work of the companies advancing the revolutions in technology that have changed our lives
這些發現在企業推動科技革命改變人們的生活時扮演了至關重要的角色，
from early successes in creating and programming computers to development of prototypes that laid the groundwork for the now-ubiquitous touchscreen.
其中就包括早期電腦和編程的產生，以及給現在隨處可見的觸摸屏打下基礎的原型機的開發。
We are told, too, that universities are about to be unbundled,
也有人說，大學的門檻即將為技術革新所顛覆，
disrupted by innovations that enable individuals to teach themselves, selecting from a buffet of massive open online courses and building do-it-yourself degrees.
每個人現在都可以從浩如煙海的在線課程中選擇喜歡的課進行自學并取得學位。
But online opportunities and residential learning are not at odds; the former can strengthen -- but does not supplant -- the latter.
但其實在線教育與學校教育并不沖突；在線教育可以作為學校教育的補充，卻無法代替它。
And through initiatives like edX and HarvardX,
通過早申課堂和哈佛在線課堂計劃，
we are sharing intellectual riches that are the creations of institutions of higher learning, sharing them with millions of people around the globe.
我們與全世界數百萬師生分享了高等教育機構的智慧結晶。
Intriguingly, we have found that a highly-represented group among these online learners around the world is teachers
而有趣的是，在全世界的在線學習者中，最多的恰好是老師，
who will use this knowledge to enrich their own schools and face-to-face classrooms.
他們上這堂課的目的就是幫助自己的學校提高面授水平。
