The Boy Genius of Ulan Bator

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/15/magazine/the-boy-genius-of-ulan-bator.html?pagewanted=all

by RockyMcNuts • 13 years ago

180 47 13 years ago

aheilbut• 13 years ago

It's not really the MOOC that enabled this; it's that principal who deserves the kudos.

jgamman• 13 years ago

both are needed for this kind of outcome. also, kudos it sounds to Mongolia education and development departments (?) - leapfrogging into the 21st century by investing in modern infrastructure - trust me, in many parts of rural NZ 3 MB download is a fantasy!

lignuist2• 13 years ago

Just returned from Mongolia a few days ago... In most rural areas in Mongolia 3MB downstream is not existent too. Actually I would say it is only available in the capital Ulaan Baatar. 3G and Wimax is available with a little luck in the populated areas of the country, but the connections are not very reliable. I experienced outages on a daily basis. Personally I would say that educational resources in different forms are available to those who are willing to search for it AND know the english language (which is only the case for a very small fraction of the Mongolian population). I'm not so sure if the (extremely corrupt) Mongolian government is investing wisely in modern infrastructures (streets in Mongolia are usually dangerously terrible)... it's more that the population is very interested in shiny smartphones and having a working network is a prerequisite to make them work. In such a huge country, a wireless network is probably the fastest way, to get people connected. But if the outcome of this is that a few brilliant people are taking their chances to get into higher education, then the government probably made correct decisions by accident.

ChuckMcM• 13 years ago

As with anything, a bunch of things have to be either happening together, or close enough to make something work. Mongolia needed mobile Internet, MIT needed to put out course ware, someone needed to make the kids aware of it, and tools (phones) and such needed to be available to take advantage of it. Now instead of a 'Yeah right, like that could happen' kind of thing it is becoming 'I know a kid from here that did that' kind of thing and that will inspire a couple more, Etc. Assuming it doesn't get shut down, and/or overloaded, if kids who took advantage of this are successful and bring that success back to their peers then it begins a logarithmic climb out of obscurity.

RockyMcNuts• 13 years ago

Yeah, but the MOOC is an incredible resource and the perfect score is great validation...harder to do it and prove it without the MOOC.

augbog• 13 years ago

Completely agree. I definitely feel MOOC's provided this opportunity but it's useless without awareness and access. The principal allowed that.

retroafroman2• 13 years ago

Enkhmunkh, the principal, was also the main driver behind bringing the OLPC project to a few of the schools in Mongolia. He also pretty much singlehandedly did the localization for the largest project on it, eToys. He's definitely contributed heavily to bringing higher IT education to Mongolia.

antimatter15• 13 years ago

On the subject of MIT and MOOCs, it's pretty interesting that he's taking solid-state chemistry (3.091), because this semester MIT is experimenting with substituting problem sets and exams with proctored mini-assessments done through MITx in addition to traditional (in-person) lecture and recitations[1].

I haven't met Battushig, but I'm another MIT freshman in the same chemistry class. After just the first full week of school, it's probably wise to reserve judgement with regard to the 3.091 experiment- but it's been plagued with a few problems (largely expected). For instance, MIT's administration isn't ready to approve a fully-online credited class (and apparently hundreds of upperclassmen were enrolled in the class in spite of schedule conflicts and no intention to attend), so they're starting to take attendance. The testing location is embedded within a kind of labyrinthine series of halls, and there's frequently long lines because everyone tries to take the assessments at the same time (they don't have enough Chromebooks to pass out, nor enough seats available).

Anyway, I think the space of MOOCs is exciting, and so is the possibility of meshing it with the traditional college experience.

[1] http://web.mit.edu/3.091/www/3091.htm

grinich• 13 years ago

Sounds worse than TEAL. :(

kostyk• 13 years ago

MOOC is the future.

solmri• 13 years ago

Same story is of my senior Amol Bhave. He attended the Circuits and Electronics course from MITx, but when he found that they are not going to offer Signals and Systems course (the next in the series), he himself built a platform with course material from OCW. And, he got in MIT Class of 2017.

[1] http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c5a4b932-924c-11e2-851f-00144feabd...

arthurcolle• 13 years ago

Perpetual overuse of the word 'genius' is enough to make one vomit.

josh33• 13 years ago

I lived in Mongolia for two years as a missionary and taught ESL at schools every day. The schools systems there are what you would expect from a 3rd world country but it never ceased to amaze me how many bright, gifted Mongolians that had innate desire to learn and improve their situation, even with very troubling situations at home.

haldujai• 13 years ago

'even with' might actually be 'because of' the troubling situations. There is nothing like hardship to motivate someone to improve their station in life.

corporalagumbo2• 13 years ago

Don't dismiss the power of a generally constructive, optimistic culture.

gexla7• 13 years ago

This might be true of someone who has fallen from high places and then experienced hardship, but it's not true for people in poverty. The power of poverty to keep someone in that situation is great. In most cases, more powerful than the ability for someone to rise above it. Depending on how bad your situation is, there's just so many ways that poverty affects you and also the logistical challenges of doing anything but barely surviving are great.

gexla7• 13 years ago

Silly title of course. I don't want to criticize the kid, I just hate the sort of bullshit articles which have been screwing up my view of the world for my entire life in an attempt to sell eyeballs.I'm happy for the kid getting exposure which may end up with giving him an opportunity that few people in this world get (even in the U.S.) That's the craziness of luck.

I will just go ahead and say that I would place myself more on the idiot end of the spectrum rather than genius end. Yet, if a 15 year old kid were to show off the same things I know, that kid would be praised as a genius. What I know isn't rocket science, it's just a huge number of small, very easy things learned from many hours of determination to learn something.

Unfortunately, I never had this determination for anything in school. I had a stumble on the opening path to where I'm at today almost by accident. Perhaps that's the difference between what this article is referring to as genius and whatever this article might think of kids who aren't genius. Maybe the author could give us a term for it.

Hacker news discussions have talked about the 10X programmer and how that programmer perhaps should be paid 10x more than everyone else. But I agree with the counter arguments that programmers who aren't contributing are overpaid rather than the 10x programmer being underpaid.

I think we could apply this to schools as well. These kids aren't genius, but rather, it's school's which are failing to help kids find their own path to something they can be passionate for. The things this kid is doing may sound like some big step for someone who is non technical, but it's amazing what anyone can achieve with a bit of time and drive (and not having to deal with the issues of poverty.)

chnx• 13 years ago

"Battushig, then 15, became one of 340 students out of 150,000 to earn a perfect score in Circuits and Electronics, a sophomore-level class at M.I.T. and the first Massive Open Online Course, or MOOC"

This is a second year MIT course in a language that is not his native language. While I agree with your sentiment about the use of the word genius, I think it is misdirected here.

gexla7• 13 years ago

Give a 15 year old kid an entire summer vacation and some equipment to run wild with a passion of building electronic gadgets and I bet you would be surprised at what that kid could do. I'm not even sure English being a second language would be as big of a barrier with a technical subject as other types of courses would be. What's the word for computer in X language? There's a good chance it's computer. That's a oversimplified silly example, but the point is that some areas of study are more universal than others.

I cringe to think about how much time I had when I was that age that I didn't put to good use. An sophomore in MIT might be challenged to find the time to make the bed properly, let alone get lost in the pursuit of the subjects that are covered in Circuits and Electronics. I was a horrible student in college, not because I was dumb (okay, I take back what I said about me being an idiot, I'm about average) but because I didn't manage my time properly. As a kid, I didn't have that problem.

ETA: And as for the numbers of people who have taken that test, it's not like it's the SAT or the required placement exam to get into a good college in China. If there were truly big stakes attached to that exam then there would be a lot more than 340 people out of 150,000 getting a perfect score.

Again, I'm happy for the kid. But I think the real story here is that kids can accomplish a lot, we just need a way to get them engaged.

corporalagumbo2• 13 years ago

I see where you're coming from. Most young people around the world don't really engage with creative learning, the fog of social games obscures the power and possibilities of education I guess. Your best shot is if you have an amazing teacher, but most teachers are products of the same system, and working with limited resources to boot. The brilliant are much more likely to wind up as professors, which I suppose could be why most people who have these later epiphanies tend to have them around college.

That said, this article is really a testament to the incredible potential of online education. A link was forged between a global centre of thought and a young boy in a far-flung, isolated and poor country. That's pretty awesome when you think about it, and hopefully something that will happen more and more as things get better!

Anyway, I hope you don't let stuff like this get you down. It's never too late in life to find your path.

gexla7• 13 years ago

Nah, it doesn't get me down. I have found my path. In fact, the internet has been as amazing for me as it has been for this kid. I learned (and continue to learn) my craft through the internet before anyone thought that creating actual courses for this stuff would be a good idea. In some cases I was lucky to find documentation.

I'm able to live anywhere in the world within reason (the Antarctica is too cold, Manhattan is too expensive and North Korea is too restrictive) and I have lived abroad for five years now. I think travel and living abroad is overrated, but I made the choice and I was able to do it.

I don't feel down about myself. I feel down about kids who aren't "genius" but have just as much potential. However, I'm a huge fan of luck created through a bit of hard work, and this kid hit it. I hope he gets into MIT.

capkutay• 13 years ago

Well...this is NYT..Would you rather they call it 'diligent mongolian boy succeeds at MIT online classes'?

I don't think every person his age has the ability to get a perfect score in a course like that given how hard the material is. I think we should be allowed to reward people like that with titles such as 'boy genius'.

Toenex• 13 years ago

Can anyone tell me what the correlation is between being proclaimed a child 'Genius' and you're impact on society when you reach maturity? There must have been studies looking to see if these kids actually go on the significantly progress their field. My concern is that we might do these kids a disservice by accelerating their education in such a narrow way.

ihnorton• 13 years ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Study_of_Mathematically_Precoci...

mathattack• 13 years ago

I find this interesting because this view of online education is the opposite of cheap education for the masses. It shows online education as a means to find the prodigies around the world.

philangist• 13 years ago

I'm really glad for the kid, but was anybody else concerned by the fact that he doesn't listen to music? Or that he dismissed the Harry Potter books because they had no objective gain for him? Whatever happened to having fun for the sake of fun..? But I guess when you're a boy genius you have a different definition of fun.

seclorum2• 13 years ago

I was impressed by his lack of interest in Harry Potter, as I consider it a pox on modern culture, but saddened by his lack of interest in music. To each, their own .. but I hope he discovers something frivolous and trivial, whether its music or trashy fiction, at some point in his life to enjoy. Genius without frivolity is often a fast road to torture and anguish, a fact that wouldn't be true if it weren't for the fact of the existence of both music, and trashy fiction, in perpetuity ..

seclorum2• 13 years ago

He needs to get help starting a hackerspace.

http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/

There is no better way to treat Genius than to let it propagate, and no better way to propagate knowledge, socially, than a hacker space. Sure, he could try to go to school - and he should - but getting others involved in his hacker projects is a lot more achievable.

The Boy Genius of Ulan Bator

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