TEL-lingit like IT is

I've just finished reading Bharat Anand's The Content Trap , which describes itself as a book "about digital change, and how to navigate it" (Kindle Location 123). It's excellent. Naturally it has much to say about the digital experiences and prospects of traditional media agents - newspapers, television networks, audio and video distributors. What I connected with most, though, was the coverage in the last few chapters considering strategy for digital education . Anand is a key member of the HBx initiative, which represents a further step in Harvard's move online (previous ones being in the form of edX ). This new approach is one implemented by the Harvard Business school. I think HBx cracked it. Anand describes the strategy in these terms: ...we carved out an online learning strategy that departed from the established MOOC model in virtually every respect. We decided to pass on the increasingly standard “camera in the classroom” in favor of a more...

An interesting, and brief story here on the subject of Coursera's new course format. Note in particular the first comment: "So much for the democratization of information, guess Coursera's investors have finally demanded their money back. Oh well least we still have edX." And, further news as the democratisation of online education starts to unravel in at least one online service ( Udemy ). As I've mentioned before , " my own view is that if MOOCs do actually survive the next few years it will be because they have morphed to become what we already know about effective distance education, done online ". MOOCs were the wrong starting point for online education, and if indeed "investors [are] finally demanded their money back" from the privately-funded Coursera this may well be the beginning of the unravelling. It's not easy to depart from free, particularly with a vast alternative supply available. I'm not optimistic...

I enjoyed the recent EDEN 2016 conference in Budapest immensely. It was great to connect with European ODL professionals, and an honour to be elected to the Executive Committee. As with all conferences, EDEN brought together a variety of perspectives and presentations that stimulate, inspire, and sometimes frustrate. Stimulation, inspiration and frustration are, for me, the hallmarks of an effective event! The place where these overlap provides a wonderful starting point for reflection. EDEN was also a wonderful opportunity to catch up with the “who’s who” of the ODL world and, of course, to sight-see the beautiful Budapest! No single photo could do this vibrant and picturesque city justice, least of all any of mine! So, back to the conference. Firstly, there was plenty to stimulate. Keynotes were very thought-provoking, and the various parallel sessions I intended were extremely worthwhile. There were (for me) two specific frustrations in the perspectives shared. One...

In a logical turn of events, Udacity, the online educational service founded by artificial intelligence guru and ex-Googler Sebastian Thrun, is offering a new set of tech degrees that guarantee a job in six months or your money back. ( ElecCafe.com ,  Code School Udacity Promises Refunds if You Don’t Get a Job ).  Now this is very, very good news. It demonstrates how achieving career qualifications can finally overcome the unsustainable and, let's face it, unjustifiable debt that characterises higher education worldwide. Education is clearly in need of a "gale of creative destruction", to quote Schumpeter . There is much to applaud here. However, philosophically there is also much to be concerned about. The same article exposes the underlying assumptions around the approach taken by Udacity's Sebastian Thrum: “The ultimate objective of education is to find people a job” Hmmm. Finding a job is a great outcome, and in purely economic cost/benefit analysis it...