From Gladiators to MOOCs: Higher Education, Technology, and Social Mobility

By Steven Berg. I ask my students, “If you were a gladiator, which technology would you prefer:  a trident, a net, or a wooden sword?”  It is a question I would like you to consider; a question to which I will return. Even before Verus and Priscus entered the Coliseum in AD 80, individuals realized that access to higher education combined with appropriate technologies was a pathway to social mobility.  Although we often think of gladiators as slaves and criminals, many poor freemen chose to train to become gladiators.  These men made the decision to enter a gladiatorial school because they considered obtaining a higher education as their best opportunity for social mobility. More...