Autism, Hackers, and the Future of Higher Education

By Malina Chavez. As a graduate student in Professor Davidson’s “History and Future of Higher Education” course and a teaching assistant in her similarly titled MOOC, I am interacting with more than 17,000 participants online and encountering them in a surprisingly personal way. Recently, a 19-year-old MOOC participant who self-identified as ADHD and a “hacker of his education” wondered in an online forum why we were dealing with higher education specifically. It is a good and valid question, one that resonates with me deeply and personally. I have two sons with autism. More...