An open letter to Stephen Downes

By Jonathan Rees.
Dear Stephen:
It’s really nice of you to have linked to my last post just as I’m sorta- kinda- trying to move beyond MOOC commentary, as I still remember our last discussion near the beginning of my long run of MOOC posts. Besides making me look up who you actually are, I’m afraid the rather blatant hostility you showed to faculty in those comments soured me on MOOCs of all kinds, including the better ones that you’ve been working on. I should have been more open-minded about what you and George Siemens have been trying to do. As I wrote with respect to George a little while back, “anybody whose ideas got mugged by a bunch of Clayton Christensen acolytes automatically has my sympathy.” That goes for you too.
As I’ve learned more about this subject, I’ve come to realize that my problem with MOOCs isn’t really the MOOCs themselves, it’s with the power dynamic behind the way in which they’ve been championed and implemented (at least in the United States). For lack of better term, the MOOC “brand” has been weaponized and that’s given your original idea a bad name that it doesn’t deserve. Read more...