8 Comments

Friedman Endorses the Celebrity Sandel | CATHOLIC FEAST
March 6th, 2013 | 10:54 am

[...] …read more Source: Postmodern Conservative   [...]

CJ Wolfe
March 6th, 2013 | 11:27 am

I agree with your points, and that “blended” method of online education sounds terrible for liberal arts courses; that would just WORSTEN the problem, since it just aggrandizes the VANITY of the online professors like Sandel even more. Which was one of the reasons you cite for why people are suggesting the blended classes replace traditional classroom lectures in the first place.

It’s still pretty awesome that 20 million Chinese watch Sandel’s MOOC. What an incredible opportunity to subvert their communist ideals!

CJ Wolfe
March 6th, 2013 | 11:32 am

If only we could get the good folks over in North Korea to watch Sandel’s show. Who knows what could happen.

Patrick Cain
March 6th, 2013 | 11:56 am

I think it is your best one yet on MOOCs.

John Presnall
March 6th, 2013 | 5:49 pm

This is completely off topic, but I can’t help hearing Moops every time I read MOOCs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQzW73WRrYM

Pseudoplotinus
March 6th, 2013 | 8:06 pm

As the token pro-MOOC Pomocon threader I think this article is a pretty perceptive critique on how MOOC’s could be a case of using a powerful tool for, what?, evil? I think MOOC’s are terrific for ways of conveying technical level content to a wide audience. So Peter’s point at the end about an online Accounting Course is correct. But I think MOOC’s can start to look like Oprah-fied content for the intellectually pretensious when it becomes a forum for celebrity intellectuals. It’s just another form of TED talk.

There is a lot of merit to considering where MOOC’s are well utilized and when MOOC’s only reinforce the problems in our intellectual establishments. Sandel’s course sounds an awful lot like the latter.

peter lawler
March 6th, 2013 | 9:55 pm

Pseudo, I think we pretty much agree on the MOOC front. People who love them also think there’s a lot of easy wisdom in them TEDs.

Pseudoplotinus
March 7th, 2013 | 2:56 pm

Peter I think so too. And ‘easy wisdom’ is a good way to describe the symptom. The greek Sophists would have loved TED’s.

On a related note, I’m sure everyone here is aware that Hillsdale is essentially doing the same thing over at their website:

http://online.hillsdale.edu/

Which makes me wonder, are these sort of offerings going the usher in a new generation of Daily Me Syndrome? Or Daily Me Syndrome 2.0?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/opinion/19kristof.html?_r=0

It’s quit possible we are looking at a networked society that is becoming ever more fragmented into a variety of boutique worldviews promulgated by celebrity intellectuals and growing ever more estranged from competing points of views.

In other words, are these sort of networked enclaves only going to give rise to a more extreme version of today?