Salon.com > MOOCs

Silicon Valley’s education solution: More Big Brother

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 16:03:00 +0000

It's never a good sign when Orwellian dystopia is cited in connection with a commercial product, even when the intent is laudatory. In the third paragraph of a New York Times story about CourseSmart, a Silicon Valley start-up that helps professors monitor whether students are reading their digital textbooks, Tracy Hurley, the dean of the school of business at Texas A&M, says, “It’s Big Brother, sort of, but with a good intent.”

My guess is that even the original Big Brother, "1984's" all-seeing dictator of Oceania, justified his surveillance as in service of the greater good. So it's not all that reassuring to hear that CourseSmart's product is made to be used with the best of intentions, even if it's entirely understandable that professors might be eager for better data measuring how students are "engaging" with their textbooks. In the context of our current digital lives, in which everything we do is measured and recorded and sliced and diced, CourseSmart seems like just one more brick in the panopticonic wall. One also has to wonder, how do such strategies fit into the larger trends remaking education?

Conservatives declare war on college

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 12:45:00 +0000

Are you crazy? The Internet will definitely ruin college!

That's what my inbox has been telling me ever since my story two weeks ago about the inevitable invasion of MOOCs (massive open online courses) into higher education, "The Internet Will Not Ruin College." The negativity wasn't unanimous, but it was definitely illuminating.

Information is not the same as knowledge! Online education might work for remedial algebra or the basics of computer programming, conceded several professors, but when the goal is to teach students to think and write critically about history or literature, the benefits of teaching thousands of students simultaneously via their iPads becomes much hazier. University administrators pushing MOOCs, they argued, are more interested in cutting costs or finding new sources of revenue than in delivering the best education possible. Most students who do register for MOOCs never finish them, they warned, and the available data suggests the kinds of students who need the most educational assistance tend to be the ones who benefit the least from online classes.

The Internet will not ruin college

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 12:45:00 +0000

I barged into my son's room on Wednesday afternoon to ask him when he wanted dinner, and discovered him watching a Khan Academy video to help with his chemistry homework. And I thought: that story I've been working on about the backlash against MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses)? Why am I even bothering? The war is already over. Debating the value of online education at the current moment in history makes about as much sense as questioning the tactics of the losing Roman generals in the great third century B.C. battle of Cannae. Perhaps of some interest to academics, but moot. Hannibal kicked ass. End of story.

I am not arguing that we shouldn't be looking long and hard at exactly how online courses are "disrupting" education, with special attention devoted to who plans to profit from new delivery models and how taxpayers will inevitably get screwed. What I'm saying is we have to start from the position that the tidal wave is already here. Indignation, however righteous, is beside the point. The kids who are cutting their teeth on Khan Academy videos for help with their chemistry and calculus homework will grow up correctly assuming that there will always be low-cost or free educational opportunities available to them online in virtually any field of inquiry. They will naturally migrate to the best stuff and be less and less willing to pay for crap. This will cause a lot of trauma for the educational establishment, but that's not the problem of the next generation that wants to learn.