MOOCs and the Media

From my friend Jon Haber's weekly blog: One of the categories in their three-times-a-day daily e-mail blast is Education. And when Degree of Freedom first got started several months ago, at least one reporter a day was looking for input on a story having something to do with MOOCs. But as the year wound on, requests for MOOC expertise slowed from 1-3 per day to 1-3 per week, which seems to parallel a decrease in interest in the subject from the mainstream (vs. educational) media over the course of the year. And even publications like The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed have stopped dedicating their technical pages (if not the front pages) entirely to the topic of massive open courses. I suppose it's only natural that a hot story cannot stay hot forever, especially in an area like education which only tends to hit the front pages of major newspapers when something highly problematic or controversial is occurring. MOOCs fit into both those categories during the first half of 2013 as the original utopian predictions that they would democratize education ran into dystopian visions of a college system decimated by the availability of free online classes from Harvard. Today, MOOC news is generally of the "more of the same" variety (such as announcements of new courses from Coursera, edX or Udacity, or new MOOC vendors such as FutureLearn and iVersity). And I think it's a sign of health that heaven and hell scenarios are giving way to a more sober assessment of what role MOOCs might play in an expanding universe of technology-driven educational innovations, even if news and analysis of a more reflective and mellower nature doesn't rise to front page coverage like in the "good old days."   If you're looking to learn more about how MOOCs and other learning models are impacting all aspects of education, check out the ongoing discussion at the Degree of Freedom web site.   Copyright © 2013 Degree of Freedom, All rights reserved. You are receiving this e-mail becuase you opted to receive Degree of Freedom News Degree of Freedom 10 Peacock Farm Rd, Lexington, MA Lexington, MA 02421