[liberationtech] MOOC'd

[Rich Kulawiec]

On Thu, Jun 20, 2013 at 01:17:18AM -0700, Raven Jiang CX wrote:
> My own concern lies with the fact that the a great deal of academia and
> knowledge creation is currently being funded by the inefficient tuition
> system. If the transition to MOOC is too sudden, then we might irreversibly
> damage our knowledge engines when all that money disappears from the system.

I share this concern.  Unfortunately, here in the US, education/research
is not a national priority and is very poorly funded (at all levels).
In addition, the incredible damage done by NCLB is now rippling through
the educational ecosystem, and universities now have to deal with an influx
of poorly-prepared students.  Add to this the crumbling (quite literally)
infrastructure and the mediocre (at best) pay scales for primary and
secondary teachers, the increasing (and myopic) focus on short-term
directed-for-commercial-gain research over long-term open-ended enquiry,
and we have one heck of a mess on our hands.

---rsk