MOOC Limitations

We should champion and study our innovations while at the same time drawing clear lines around the space where they’re useful and being honest about the space where they’re not.

While I like to imagine a future in which students do not come to the school, the school comes to the student, I also see that there is a reasonable limitation to what can be done with the new learning format. On one hand, content can be provided by fewer instructors to a greater audience than ever, but the instruction is somewhat one-way, as smaller groups lend themselves more to peer and instructor interaction, and younger learners need more direct involvement in the beginning. As they grow, independence wins out and learners that have mastered the communication methods have much more chance of teaching themselves what they seek to learn.

We are, after all, self-taught in what we learn from day one.