By Stephen Downes - Half an Hour. The Advent of MOOCs panel session
Abdul Wahid Khan IGNOU
    - MOOCs - recent, buzzword, etc - critics call it a fad, hype, etc.
    - my bias - MOOCs have a contribution to make, but there are reasons to be careful
        - MOOCs essentially a response to the emerging knowledge society - the value of knowledge increases
        - people used to value wealth but now they value knowledge
    - poor man's version of MOOCs
        - mssive - nobody has defined this;
        - open - a new phenomenon;
        - online - this is where I deviate - in my time we had 'on air' for farmers
            - eg. in support of Green Revolution in India - to address gap between the land and the lab
            - radio + printed support system - has been running for 35 years
            - what is the difference? It targeted a local problem, in a local language, multi-sakeholder, blended learning
    - it is not technology that should determine learning, it should be the learning that determines the tech
        - eg. MOOCs in Bengali, in Hindi, etc
        - you don't want to put a current evaluation against the potential of the technology
        - what made IGNOU possible?
            - massive unmet demand,
            - plus, we began to develop programs that meet the needs of industry
            - encouraged active partnership between public and private sector (eg. 3,500 private sector learning facilities)
        - technology can bring a multiplier effect, but the technology per se is not the action. More...