This document discusses the hype around MOOCs and online education and the differing perspectives between media and practitioners. It notes several issues driving changes in higher education, including the high cost of education and a recognition that the system needs to change. However, it argues that media coverage of MOOCs fails to adequately address these complex issues. While MOOCs offer opportunities to share knowledge more openly, there are also concerns about their commercialization and impact on the goals and beneficiaries of education. Overall, the document calls for a public discussion about the future of education.

1. The Hype that Ate Itself
h"p://www.flickr.com/photos/gforsythe/8028605773/

2. …but what has it left us?

3. The system of higher ed is in shift

4. Two Solitudes
Media Discourse
•
•
•
•
•
Disruption
Replacement
Transformation
Tsunami
Free
Practitioners’ Discourse
•
•
•
•
•
Connection
Pedagogy
Hybrid options
Institution-specific
Fit to purpose

5. “we have a lousy product”

6. Pandora’s Box
h"p://www.flickr.com/photos/felmarah/5078680202

7. 1. The ‘education is broken’
refrain

8. 2. A consensus that massive
student debt is not tenable

9. 3. A recognition that education
as a system CAN be unbundled
…and may need to rebundle in
new, unfamiliar ways

10. 4. A discourse of solutions
and delivery

11. 5. A decline in public funding

12. 6. Openness to online

13. Media discourse around
MOOCs is not equipped to
actually grapple with
ANY
of these issues

14. h"p://www.flickr.com/photos/scorpio58/4067099731

15. But unicorns do not die.

16. MOOCs embody digital
practices
Harness & contribute to
knowledge abundance
Are participatory
Are networked
Are distributed
Generate knowledge &
connections that extend
beyond course
Share the processes of
knowledge work, not just
the products

17. Established power interests
& marketization
h"p://www.flickr.com/photos/midgro22/6299926854

18. “When colleges and universities become
a market, there is no incentive to teach
what customer would rather not know.
When colleges are in the business of
making customers comfortable, we are
all poorer for it.”
- T. MacMillan Cottom, Slate, Dec 2013

19. Behind door #1…
h"p://www.flickr.com/photos/noiseprofessor/8270908219

20. Behind door #2…& #3 & #4
h"p://www.flickr.com/photos/wiccked/133164205

21. What counts as education?
Who is it for? Who is it meant
to benefit? What are its
goals?

22. We need to have these
conversations in public

23. What’s your vision?
Thank you.
@bonstewart