Friday, November 22, 2013

Bullets of a few truths, maybe not so universally acknowledged


  • During Sebastian Thrun's recent "aw, we were just kidding about MOOCs" statements (see Jonathan Rees and Historiann), someone, somewhere, called them "correspondence courses." Sinclair Lewis is rolling in laughter from beyond the grave.  
  • The fact that MOOCs ended up catering to, basically, the Honors Students of the Internet rather than people struggling with jobs and difficult lives caught the MOOC cheerleaders totally by surprise.  Who could have predicted that people with great internet access, lots of success in previous academic settings, and time on their hands would gain the most from those courses? Apart from every blogger, ever, and everyone who doesn't teach at Princeton or Stanford, apparently no one. 
  • Speaking of "difficult lives," four things from the news this week:
  • "You've had a chance to look at papers graded both ways, with typing and with handwriting, so which do you want for this one? Show of hands?" A lot for typing, because as one put it, laughing, "you have terrible handwriting." I said, "but I thought it was fabulous," and we all laughed.  I'm going to miss this group of students. 
  • I just want to be done with this book manuscript. I just want to be done. 

3 comments:

Fie upon this quiet life! said...

Things are still tough for us, despite us both working and making more money than ever. We're still in recovery mode from ten (plus) years of abject poverty. I imagine it'll take us about that long to recover.

Historiann said...

Thanks for the link, and the support on this. (And this time, your link actually showed up in my "incoming links." Remarkable providences!

undine said...

Fie, it takes a long time to pay off loans, but it happens eventually. I worry about our students, though (hence the semi-political economic news, which I usually don't post about).

Historiann-thanks! I thought that "Incoming Links" was determined to ignore me.