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Disengaging from yesteryear's institutions is not going to help them. Best way is to force them to adapt. MOOCs seem to be the thing that will make education a

by n0rm 12y ago

Disengaging from yesteryear's institutions is not going to help them. Best way is to force them to adapt. MOOCs seem to be the thing that will make education assess its business practices. I wish I didn't have to refer to education as a business, but alas, the idea that you can fine-tune any organization through business cases has been perpetuated.

sj4nz 12y ago
By MOOC you mean "Massive open online course" I assume?
- n0rm 12y ago
  Yes. A diploma from a prestigious university only means you can go through better gilded doors. After that, your measure is how much money you helped your employer make. After a while, the metric becomes what you've done (in the past) to prove your worth. If MOOCs are taken seriously, and can compete with prestigious diplomas when it comes to that first job, then you've got a game changer. Sadly, the only way to make a business (again, pains me to say that) pay attention is if they lose money.
  - walshemj 12y ago
    yes right so you get to work a MC Job instead of a good one - not exactly a endorsement for MOOCs is it. You go to Oxbridge/ivy league universities for the contacts not just the piece of paper
    - n0rm 12y ago
      Exactly. You should be learning things in college, not kissing ass. That's the very definition of the downward spiral education is in. Those contacts you make in big-name schools are mostly wishful thinking. Those places don't train you to be a friend. They train you to be ruthless, efficient "winners". Make your FU money and bail. Nietzsche explained why; > He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you. p.s. a white collar mcjob makes more than an adjunct "professor".
      - walshemj 12y ago
        er no I don't think you understand the advantage that going to a good school and the a top 10 University can bring. Going to eaton then oxford and the bullingdon club opens far more doors look at the UK Cabinet. Do you think Pres Obahma would he be where he is today without going to Harvard and had just a community organizer with just a local Chicago high school education.
        n0rm 12y ago
        Do you really think Obama is where he is today out of merit? He won't rock the boat. He won't go JFK on people and cause a ruckus. Do you really believe an upper-middle-class lawyer can breeze past the multi-billionaires? Look at what's happening in Detroit. Who the scapegoat is for the downfall of an entire city.
vertak 12y ago
If the universities are smart and look at the MOOC's not as a competitor but as a partner, then higher-ed can improve. I'm a college student now and one of our school's math classes experimented with flipped teaching. I think the emergence of MOOC's is what largely caused this my school's faculty to seriously consider the meter of online learning, to the point where they were willing to A/B test a required differential equations class. While the first results from MOOC's haven't been what people expected, http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/from-a-million-mooc-users-a-few-early-research-results/48841 http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/from-a-million-mooc-u... At least, like one of the comments above said, they're making the established higher ed organizations rethink their practices.
analog31 12y ago
Alternatives to traditional college education would be great. How will we know that they work?

by n0rm 12y ago

sj4nz 12y ago

By MOOC you mean "Massive open online course" I assume?

n0rm 12y ago
Yes. A diploma from a prestigious university only means you can go through better gilded doors. After that, your measure is how much money you helped your employer make. After a while, the metric becomes what you've done (in the past) to prove your worth. If MOOCs are taken seriously, and can compete with prestigious diplomas when it comes to that first job, then you've got a game changer. Sadly, the only way to make a business (again, pains me to say that) pay attention is if they lose money.
- walshemj 12y ago
  yes right so you get to work a MC Job instead of a good one - not exactly a endorsement for MOOCs is it. You go to Oxbridge/ivy league universities for the contacts not just the piece of paper
  - n0rm 12y ago
    Exactly. You should be learning things in college, not kissing ass. That's the very definition of the downward spiral education is in. Those contacts you make in big-name schools are mostly wishful thinking. Those places don't train you to be a friend. They train you to be ruthless, efficient "winners". Make your FU money and bail. Nietzsche explained why; > He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you. p.s. a white collar mcjob makes more than an adjunct "professor".
    - walshemj 12y ago
      er no I don't think you understand the advantage that going to a good school and the a top 10 University can bring. Going to eaton then oxford and the bullingdon club opens far more doors look at the UK Cabinet. Do you think Pres Obahma would he be where he is today without going to Harvard and had just a community organizer with just a local Chicago high school education.
      - n0rm 12y ago
        Do you really think Obama is where he is today out of merit? He won't rock the boat. He won't go JFK on people and cause a ruckus. Do you really believe an upper-middle-class lawyer can breeze past the multi-billionaires? Look at what's happening in Detroit. Who the scapegoat is for the downfall of an entire city.

vertak 12y ago

If the universities are smart and look at the MOOC's not as a competitor but as a partner, then higher-ed can improve. I'm a college student now and one of our school's math classes experimented with flipped teaching. I think the emergence of MOOC's is what largely caused this my school's faculty to seriously consider the meter of online learning, to the point where they were willing to A/B test a required differential equations class. While the first results from MOOC's haven't been what people expected, http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/from-a-million-mooc-users-a-few-early-research-results/48841 http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/from-a-million-mooc-u... At least, like one of the comments above said, they're making the established higher ed organizations rethink their practices.

analog31 12y ago

Alternatives to traditional college education would be great. How will we know that they work?