Humanity 2.0: defining humanity - Steve Fuller’s TEDx Warwick talk (24:08), http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/podcasts/media/more/tedx?podcastItem=steve_fuller.mp4
Steve Fuller asks have we always, sometimes or never been human?
- I was interested in Steve's views that we should not ignore the 'big questions' that still need to be answered from the 70's ie having failed in the humanist project in achieving racial, gender or class equality.
- He asks - "have human beings left the building".
- Coursera says " Thinking about education specifically, might we see MOOCs as an example of an ‘old humanistic project’, particularly in the promise they appear to offer for democratisation, equality of access and so on?"
- Yes this would probably suggest that it is one strategy to create the equality of access to education. However although there are over 40,000 participants, how many are from lower socio economic, or disadvantage backgrounds
Reading:
Shirky, C. (2012). Napster, Udacity and the academy. shirky.com, 12 November 2012. http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2012/11/napster-udacity-and-the-academyQuotes I found though provoking:
- Comparisons of changes to music industry and potential effect for impending change on our educational system.
- MOOC questions: what it is, who it is, how it is delivered and who delivers it?
- "Blistering public criticism makes an open system better".
- Open education will "raise quality and certification faster than traditional institutions can lower costs or increase enrolments.
Read more:
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2012/10/29/essay-how-moocs-raise-questions-about-definition-student#ixzz2KTsgqQiIInside Higher Ed
- "The kind of dedicated and innovative teachers typically drawn to MOOCs will find it very difficult to ignore the demands of online learners who act and feel like, well … students."
- Nevertheless, we should not underestimate the degree to which a sense of connection with an individual instructor, one who models the project of intellectual inquiry, is a key dimension of many students’ motivation"
- If we allow the word "student" to lose its primary meaning as a person formally engaged in learning through enrollment in a school or college, a person toward whom that institution and its faculty assume some responsibility, then we undermine the case for colleges and universities as the place where students go to meet their educational goals
It seems clear that the spaces, formats, and media in which higher education is
offered may change radically in the coming years. We will certainly need to
adjust our terminology to keep pace with these changes. We must not lose sight,
however, of the central axis around which all education revolves. Classroom
walls may disappear as predicted, lectures may go the way of the dodo bird, but
what will still define education is the presence of (a) a teacher, (b) students,
and (c) a set of agreed-upon goals that they work toward
together.
Read more:
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2012/10/29/essay-how-moocs-raise-questions-about-definition-student#ixzz2KTubQ4Ih
Inside Higher Ed
- Why have we stopped aspiring to provide the real thing for everyone
Blog Comments:
Phillip Holden: EDCMOOC -- are the students and teachers human?
Phillip raises some interesting points ie. he sees this MOOC as providing an opportunity for lots of enrichment, information, software to learn and things to read but not "the kind of intense intellectual engagement and debate that really produces knowledge in class.
I would agree that I feel like I am floating around aimlessly picking up little snippets, reading and making comments here and there but not really challenging my thinking. This is occurring more with my in person conversations that I am having with my son in sharing my learning experiences.
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