Best ways to access courses http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/05/technology/personaltech/Moocs-via-tablet-or-smartphone-are-gateway-to-free-education.html?ref=education
MOOCs have been the hottest thing in education since at least 2005. So if they are snowballing then the snowball is moving like a snowball though slush. IIRC the NYT itself claimed 2012 was the year of the MOOC. Some fine revolution there, Lou The #1 problem with MOOC is that while they are great means to impart information there are a terrible way to assure any quality. Now we are being told that hey, you can learn something on the A train while the rattle on the tracks is turning your brain to mush. Fantastic! I tell you what. When an employer hires someone who as taken MOOC classes from MIT over an actual MIT graduate I'll eat my words. Until then lets call it what it is: course work for suckers.
That would be a pretty neat trick considering that the first one was in 2008, and they only became widely known when Stanford offered three of them in 2011. They're not revolutionary. I gather that in the last few years that media outlets, having only so much to talk about when it comes to higher education, latched onto MOOCs, which gave them much, much more attention than they really warrant. People do, you know. Peter Brett wrote The Warded Man and most of The Daylight War on a smartphone while commuting on the New York City subway. Or, we could call it an expansion of continuing education, which is what it really is.
That's true enough. Personally I think of MOOCs as being a step in the evolution of education. By themselves MOOCs might not mean too much but could wind up being an important step in a larger process.
1450: The printed book will revolutionize education! No longer will education be restricted to a few students in a classroom -- now everybody will have access to education, by reading books in a library! 1910: The motion picture will revolutionize education! No longer will education be restricted to a few students in a classroom -- now everybody will have access to education, by watching filmed lectures in a theater! 1930: The radio will revolutionize education! No longer will education be restricted to a few students in a classroom -- now everybody will have access to education, by listening to lectures on the radio! 1940: The LP will revolutionize education! No longer will education be restricted to a few students in a classroom -- now everybody will have access to education, by listening to lectures on long-playing records! 1950: The television will revolutionize education! No longer will education be restricted to a few students in a classroom -- now everybody will have access to education, by watching classes on TV! 2010: MOOCs will revolutionize education! No longer will education be restricted to a few students in a classroom -- now everybody will have access to education, by browsing on the Internet! Link: Education Forever" target="_blank" class="externalLink" rel="nofollow">15 Technologies That Were Supposed to Change Education Forever.
Forgot one: 1800: The postal system will revolutionize education! No longer will education be restricted to a few students in a classroom -- now everybody will have access to education, by corresponding with teachers by mail!
As an aside, those interested in the history of distance learning may like Schools of the Air by William Bianchi, which is a history of this idea and assorted attempts to make it so.
This is what happens when people get their facts from Wikipedia. MOOCs have been around since at least 2005. There didn't receive much coverage until around 2009/10. And if one wants to get picky one can even trace their evolution from the "open university" concept that was popular in the off-line world in the 1990s. Sadly, however, it is like Al Gore inventing the internet. Something becomes popular and someone tries to take credit for it.
There were precursors, and if one really wants to argue that it was the HASTAC course then I suppose one can, but the first MOOC, called as such, was when I said. But perhaps since I'm on a lot of lists with Stephen Downes I go by his one with George Siemens as the first one, especially since it was the first to be called that. That's a better description of Sebastian Thrun than Downes and Siemens, and even then it would be more misattribution than false claim.
This all may be true but you are the only one saying "revolutionize." That word did not appear in my posts. In fact, I explicitly stated that MOOCs, by themselves, might not mean too much.
You started this thread by posting a link to a New York Times story (in Post #1 above). The lead sentence of that story reads as follows:
I post links to many stories. This doesn't mean that I agree with every word in them or even that agree with them at all.
Nobody suggested that you did. However, you presumably do expect people to read and comment on the linked stories, right? Otherwise, why start a thread about them ? So now you have a thread where people are responding to the story that you drew our attention to. Doesn't seem unusual to me.
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