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Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings, and Arianna Huffington, co-founder of the Huffington Post, talk during the 2011 Leaders in Technology Dinner Friday night at the Lafite Ballroom in the Wynn Hotel.
Saturday, Jan. 8, 2011 | 2:05 a.m.
Beyond the Sun
Though the Consumer Electronics Show is all about new and emerging technology, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings took some time Friday night at the Leaders in Technology Dinner to put it all into context.
And for Hastings, one of the most important things technology can innovate is education.
“My dream for society is that all kids can get an incredible education,” Hastings said to Arianna Huffington and about 200 attendees at the Lafite Ballroom at Wynn Las Vegas. Though Hastings is known for starting Netflix, a movie and television rental and internet on-demand service, he got his start as a mathematics teacher in Swaziland with the Peace Corps.
During the fireside chat with Huffington, co-founder of the Huffington Post, Hastings said he believes technology can be a key in helping students and teachers.
“My biggest frustration was all the kids were at different levels,” Hastings said of his teaching experience. “It’s very hard as a teacher to teach all the kids, but software has the possibility to help them get to their next level. I think over the next 10 to 20 years, there’ll be a tremendous amount of innovation of software that teaches.”
But technology has its limitations and is best suited to subjects in which there is always a correct answer, he said. “I don’t think a computer is going to be teaching poetry,” Hastings said.
Though education was a focal point of the discussion, Huffington didn’t waste the opportunity to talk cinema with the CEO of a company that in 10 years delivered a billion DVDs to homes in the U.S. and Canada.
Huffington asked Hastings if his favorite movie of the year was “Waiting for Superman,” a documentary by Davis Guggenheim that displayed the failures of American public education by following students as they went through the system.
“I thought it was kind of diffuse,” he said. “It didn’t really make many solutions.”
When pressed for his favorite movie of 2010, he said he had trouble remembering but raved about “Black Swan” by Darren Aronofsky. He described it as “incredible” and “dark.”
Huffington thought differently. “That’s interesting, because I saw it and walked out halfway through,” she said as the crowd laughed.
Huffington also inquired about the Netflix algorithm that predicts what movies a Netflix user will enjoy based on movies they rate on the website.
Hastings said similar technology is being utilized more and more by companies. Google, for instance, has been using the technology to provide a better search experience for their users, he said.
But it can’t replace human experience, he said.
“We’re still nowhere near as good as a video clerk that really knows your movie or a waiter that really knows your food,” Hastings said.
Huffington ended the discussion with a simple question.
“Why aren’t you on Twitter?” she asked him.
“I am, but anonymously,” Hastings said as the crowd laughed. “I’m a lurker.”
With world-class dining, shopping, spas, golf and entertainment, there's no shortage of things to do at Wynn. The resort’s aquatic acrobatic show, “Le Reve—The Dream,” a creation by Cirque Du Soleil veteran Franco Dragone and Steve Wynn, will leave guests wanting more with its breathtaking performances that conjure an imaginary world. The Wynn Esplanade offers a unique shopping experience with stores including Chanel, Manolo Blahnik, Christian Dior, Oscar de la Renta and many more. Tryst is its signature nightclub, offering a secluded lagoon inside the club and spacious dance floor. Blush, the Wynn’s ultra lounge, draws swanky party-goers. Tryst, Wynn’s signature nightclub, is situated along a private lagoon under a 90-foot waterfall and plays host to some of the world’s most renown DJs.
CORRECTION: The story originally reported that Reed Hastings taught in Switzerland with the Peace Corps. He taught in Swaziland. | (January 10, 2011)
"he got his start as a mathematics teacher in Switzerland with the Peace Corps."
We were sending Peace Corps volunteers to Switzerland?
A note about the education I have believed for years that we as society should revamp our education system, We have kids in the eight grade that are being suppressed when they can do 10Th or even 11Th grade work perhaps it should be done on a merit system of some sort, If the students could network from a secure or even a controlled access Internet web site with the State or County then the students could advance at there pace instead of being held back to the slowest learner and each of those kids no matter there level could attend in class instruction with there group of comprehension.
This could lead to the reduced pier pressure and bullying and perhaps even drugs, This would also reduce the size of class and reduce the number of schools needed and that would save tax payers even more. Call it a Home schooled/public hybrid education.
CasinoKid--
Many schools from elementary through secondary are using online programs. Most programs are classroom supervised instruction, some are independent study programs where students access assigned online curricula at home--and some are a combination of classroom and home access. Florida, for example has adopted, a combination.
Your idea about allowing students to advance on an individual basis is the model in use in many adult education programs. I am retired from adult education and found that individualizaton works for adults quite well.
There is a lot of movement I think going on now to broaden the indidualized approach at pre-adult levels.
casinokid,
you are describing the exact problem with "no child left behind'.
teachers are forced to teach to the slowest in the group. yet another example of big government ruining everything it touches.
anybody who has brought up closing the bloated bureacracy Dept of Education is marginalized and attacked.
it's as though they had proposed closing all public schools. this is how the liberal left misinforms and preys on peoples fears.
most people don't even know anything about the Dept of Education. like the fact that it was started by President Jimmy Carter right before he left office. Is it a coincidence that public education in this country has gone DOWN in the last 30 years since the advent of the Dept of Education??
Indeed, I foresee humans of all ages and languages throughout the world eventually obtaining their primary, secondary and advanced educational services through electronic communication devices instead of the classroom -- it all boils down to utilizing the technologies which have been and will be developed to advance mankind - such technological innovation utilization offers enormous economical and efficiency advantages over antiquated, unaffordable traditional methods not to mention the flexibility to individualize and customize programs to the end user's needs and abilities to enhance realization of the individual's knowledge potential.
Unlike Mr. Hastings, I do believe poetry can and will be taught/learned through electronic device dissemination - for that matter, anything which currently is taught/learned from a book -- books (for the most part) along with libraries and classrooms will eventually become distant memories such as the typewriter, encyclopedia salesman and newspapers.
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