Ben Nelson on the future of higher education

What if every student had access to the same high-quality educational tools? This week, Reid and Aria are joined by Ben Nelson to discuss higher education. Ben is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of the Minerva Project, a for-profit educational organization that created the non-profit Minerva University with the mission of reforming global education through an interdisciplinary curriculum and fully active learning pedagogy. Ben talks about how we can increase people’s access to an elite education that prepares them for success as both professionals and citizens. Also, Ben responds to GPT-4 stories that reimagine what a “classroom” really can be.

Read the AI-generated stories for this episode here. Read the transcript of this episode here. For more info on the podcast and transcripts of all of the episodes, visit www.possible.fm/podcast.

Topics: 4:54 - Hellos and intros 6:54 - Ben’s elevator description of Minerva University 11:11 - How we absorb information and the concept of transfer in education 16:01 - The ways technology can deepen learning and remove biases 19:57 - ChatGPT in schools 25:37 - Responding to GPT-4’s story about immersive learning using AR/VR 32:37 - How to push past typical higher education talking points 37:40 - Rapidfire questions, including a take on higher ed and public policy 45:06 - Debrief with Reid and Aria

Possible is a new podcast that sketches out the brightest version of the future—and what it will take to get there. Most of all, it asks: what if, in the future, everything breaks humanity's way? Hosted by Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger, each episode features an interview with a visionary from a different field: climate science, media, criminal justice, and more. The conversation also features another kind of guest: GPT-4, OpenAI’s latest and most powerful language model to date. Each episode has a companion story, generated by GPT-4, which will serve as a jumping-off point for a hopeful, speculative discussion about what humanity could possibly get right if we leverage technology—and our collective effort—effectively.

Possible is produced by Wonder Media Network and hosted by Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger. Our showrunner is Shaun Young. Possible is produced by Edie Allard and Sara Schleede. Jenny Kaplan is our Executive Producer and Editor. Special thanks to Diana El Azar, Surya Yalamanchili, Saida Sapieva, Ian Alas, Greg Beato, Ben Relles, and the team at LinkedIn Media Productions, including Justin Blumenthal, Hasan Ahmed, Keith Cheng, Eric Carlos, and Gabe Lomeli Jr. for video production on this episode.