The problem, of course, is that those students represent the precise group MOOCs are meant to serve. “MOOCs were supposed to be the device that would bring higher education to the masses,” Jonathan Rees noted. “However, the masses at San Jose State don’t appear to be ready for the commodified, impersonal higher education that MOOCs offer.” Thrun’s cavalier disregard for the SJSU students reveals his true vision of the target audience for MOOCs: students from the posh suburbs, with 10 tablets apiece and no challenges whatsoever—that is, the exact people who already have access to expensive higher education.
It is more than galling that Thrun blames students for the failure of a medium that was invented to serve them, instead of blaming the medium that, in the storied history of the “correspondence” course (“TV/VCR repair”!), has never worked. For him, MOOCs don’t fail to educate the less privileged because the massive online model is itself a poor tool. No, apparently students fail MOOCs because those students have the gall to be poor, so let’s give up on them and move on to the corporate world, where we don’t have to be accountable to the hoi polloi anymore, or even have to look at them, because gross.
Group items matching
in title, tags, annotations or url
2More
The Massive Open Online Professor | Academic Matters - 1 views
1More
#fslt12 MOOC - Registration « Jenny Connected - 0 views
1More
What do you know? Connected learning outcomes explored | Connected Learning Research Ne... - 0 views
1More
Leading in the 21st century - McKinsey Quarterly - Governance - Leadership - 0 views
1More
Why we need more women working at the bottom, as well as the top - 0 views
4More
Sebastian Thrun and Udacity: Distance learning is unsuccessful for most students. - 0 views
3More
People who need people. | More or Less Bunk - 0 views
1More
From learning gatekeeper to learning concierge | Learning Concierge Society - 0 views
1More
Why Keyword Research is a Waste of Time (And What You Should Be Doing Instead) - 0 views
« First
‹ Previous
41 - 60 of 153
Next ›
Last »
Showing 20▼ items per page