????兩年前，我見過普加?桑卡爾，當(dāng)時(shí)她已創(chuàng)立了促進(jìn)師生間課堂討論的協(xié)作平臺(tái)Piazza。起初，這個(gè)平臺(tái)只是在斯坦福大學(xué)（Stanford）的一些學(xué)生中使用。如今，Piazza已被斯坦福大學(xué)、普林斯頓大學(xué)（Princeton）以及麻省理工學(xué)院（MIT）等頂尖大學(xué)所采用，并在全球25個(gè)國家得到應(yīng)用。獲得紅杉資本（Sequoia Capital）和貝西默風(fēng)投（Bessemer Ventures）的750萬美元融資后，32歲的?？栂Ｍ茉诮逃母镏写笳谷_。但在其他企業(yè)家涉足這一極具變革性的領(lǐng)域之前，她認(rèn)為我們需要重新審視技術(shù)在教育中發(fā)揮的作用。根據(jù)對達(dá)沃斯世界經(jīng)濟(jì)論壇（the World Economic Forum）的感悟，?？栐诒酒诳妥恼轮蟹窒砹怂挠^點(diǎn)。

????作為Piazza的創(chuàng)始人兼首席執(zhí)行官，我習(xí)慣于為高等教育中出現(xiàn)的技術(shù)搖旗吶喊。在達(dá)沃斯目睹了大家對網(wǎng)絡(luò)教育近乎烏托邦式的樂觀后，我發(fā)現(xiàn)自已要扮演一個(gè)很不習(xí)慣的角色：牛虻。

????從達(dá)沃斯回來后，我一直在醞釀著自己對這個(gè)領(lǐng)域的異端邪說：教育是一段個(gè)人旅程，而現(xiàn)在我們?yōu)閷W(xué)生提供的網(wǎng)絡(luò)內(nèi)容卻雜亂無章。

????我在得到丈夫的允許后才來到達(dá)沃斯，而且我也不是天生就適合這一行。我在印度長大成人，其間有七年時(shí)間我從未與家人之外的任何一個(gè)男孩子說過話。我們鎮(zhèn)上很多女孩子16歲就嫁人了，一些女孩子幾乎不怎么識字。我為什么能擺脫這種生活呢？因?yàn)?，我父親受過教育，他要求我學(xué)習(xí)。他為我描繪了一種我從未見過的生活，一種不困囿于高墻大院的生活。如果沒有他的指引，我就不可能到印度理工學(xué)院（Indian Institute of Technology）求學(xué)。

????在達(dá)沃斯論壇上，銷售力網(wǎng)絡(luò)公司（Salesforce.com）首席執(zhí)行官馬克?貝尼奧夫和社交網(wǎng)站Facebook前總裁、音樂交換網(wǎng)站納普斯特聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人肖恩?帕克主持了一次圓桌會(huì)議，關(guān)注的問題是：“你希望看到怎樣一種全球變化？”我們這個(gè)座談小組關(guān)注的是教育問題，大家都一致認(rèn)為網(wǎng)絡(luò)課程潛力巨大?！邦嵏病焙汀白兏铩笔潜蝗藗冾l頻鄭重提及的兩個(gè)詞。當(dāng)時(shí)有人問我——因?yàn)槲抑辽僖呀?jīng)走出了俗話所說的小土屋——網(wǎng)絡(luò)教育是否本可以開闊我童年時(shí)期的視野。

????我的回答只能是否定的?；貞浳业慕逃龤v程，真正重要的是，在許多關(guān)鍵時(shí)刻，我能憧憬自己的未來。它往往是得益于良師的幫助，或者至少得到過某個(gè)先驅(qū)的啟發(fā)。這就是我的個(gè)人經(jīng)歷，好在有過他人的指引。這些指引比上任何特定課程或?qū)W習(xí)任何教育內(nèi)容都更為重要，正是這些指引使我擺脫了像許多人那樣早早嫁人和陷于貧困的命運(yùn)。

????發(fā)達(dá)國家的人對第三世界國家的學(xué)生有一種奇怪的、不切實(shí)際的看法：只要把教育內(nèi)容擺在他們面前，他們就會(huì)像災(zāi)荒時(shí)期收到空降食物那樣饑不擇食地吞下去。

????I met Pooja Sankar two years ago after she founded Piazza, a collaboration platform that facilitates class discussion among students and teachers. Starting with a few students at Stanford, Piazza now is used at top universities such as Stanford and Princeton and MIT and in 25 countries around the world. With $7.5 million in funding from Sequoia Capital and Bessemer Ventures, Sankar, 32, aspires to play a key role in the transformation of education. But before other entrepreneurs get too revolutionary in this field, she thinks we need to reassess technology's role in education. Following an epiphany at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Sankar shares her view in this Guest Post.

????As the founder and CEO of Piazza, I'm used to cheerleading for technology in higher education. But in the midst of an almost utopian optimism about online education that I witnessed in Davos, I found myself playing an unaccustomed role: gadfly.

????And since returning from Davos, I've distilled my heresies to this: Education is a personal journey, and right now we're offering students an online jumble.

????I rode into Davos on a spouse's pass, and I'm not to the manner born. I came of age in interior India, where for seven years I didn't talk to a single boy outside my family. Many girls in my town were married off by their parents at 16, some of them barely literate. The reason I got out? My father, an educated man, demanded that I study. He painted a picture of a life that was different from the one I could see just beyond the wall that separated our home from the street. Without that guidance, I would never have gone to IIT, Indian Institute of Technology.

????At a session in Davos, Salesforce.com (CRM) CEO Marc Benioff and Sean Parker of Facebook (FB) and Napster fame hosted a roundtable focused on the question, "What's one global change you'd want to see?" Our panel focused on education, and all agreed that online courses showed great potential. The words "disrupt" and "revolutionize" were spoken solemnly and often. Then someone asked me -- as the person at the table least removed from the proverbial mud hut -- whether online education would have broadened my childhood horizons.

????I had to answer, "No." What was really most important in my education was that at key moments, I was able to envision to the next step. And usually I did it with the help of a mentor, or at least someone who'd taken that next step before I had. The journey was personal, but guided. And that, more than access to any particular class or bit of educational content, was what saved me from the fate of early marriage and poverty that befell so many others.

????In the wealthy world, we have an oddly romantic view of students in the global south: If we can just put educational stuff in front of them, they'll devour just as they would eat food if we airdropped it in during a famine.