So hard to know.
I'm always just a touch wary of movements that put "anti-elitism" (or even just egalitarianism) front and center, or seem to offer something for nothing.
It makes me want to dig a little harder to find out what's behind the curtain. So far I haven't found
anything that makes sense behind this one, and I find that quite worrying.
The only way that this makes
any kind of real sense is with no assessment or expert guidance/feedback for participants, and there's no "there" there, if you see what I mean. No way is that going to be credit-bearing. Nobody is going to grant me a license to practice law just because I say that I should be able to, based upon my years of study, and they shouldn't, either. Now, that doesn't mean that I shouldn't study the law as a means to enrich my own life and that I might not even attain a level of understanding that rivals the pros.
Peer-grading, robo-grading, or multiple choice only assessments is where this is all headed, and Coursera has tipped their hand already-- both in statements made to the media and also in partnering with Pearson.
That is not real "education" in my estimation. There's just no way to teach Composition without interaction. Oh, and another thing-- it's not really possible to teach introductory chemistry or linear algebra without it, either, in spite of what some reports have said in recent days.
I'm all for flipped classrooms. I like that very much, in fact. I'm also all for providing as many enrichment opportunities as possible for GT kids (obviously) and for lifelong learning for anyone that wants it. I'm more than a little alarmed by the notion that "video" is intended to replace...
expert-written textbooks?? (Seriously-- this is a quote by someone in this MOOC-consortium push.) The rationale behind this statement? This person
believes that people learn more from video than from "dry textbooks." Oh, well then. If you think it hard enough, I suppose that makes it true??
It bothers me that there isn't a coherent whole here when one looks at it carefully.
I'm that kind of person. It just bugs me. So I keep worrying at it, trying to ferret out an explanation.
No question where DD gets this trait from, I guess.
