Sebastian Thrun, an ‘oily charlatan’?

I’ve written a couple of times about Sebastian Thrun, and not always in complimentary fashion. In the first piece from 2012 I could be accused of calling him a ‘knucklehead’. The second in 2013 was more a tracking of his change of heart and mind, from messianic mission to hard-headed business. Continue reading

Guest post*: e-learning, MOOCs and the changing face of UK universities

As a recent(ish) university graduate now working in the digital recruitment industry, I definitely have more of a vested interest than many of my peers when it comes to the future of UK universities – and I’ve been particularly keen to try and keep up to date with the recent changes that have been going on with the higher education industry in my country. Continue reading

Not just MOOCs: catching up with links

MOOCs are the current hot topic. And you might not be just reading about them, you may also be trying them. If so, are you one of the small band of ‘completers’, or did you discontinue? If you did drop out, then you’re not alone, as attested by the interactive graph produced by Katy Jordan. But there’s a lot more than MOOCs going on at present, and one way I try to keep up is to peruse my links from time to time. Continue reading

A MOOC on open education: go on, enrol now!

It’s only just started, so don’t delay, enrol for the UK Open University MOOC on Open education. Yes, our old friend Martin Weller has been at it again, and this time it’s a version of the Masters unit H817, ‘Openness and innovation in elearning’ made available to all via the UKOU’s OpenLearn initiative. Continue reading

Guest post*: Being educated isn’t enough – how the professional world is revolutionizing education

Be prepared, this is going to be a bit of a rant.

With the rise of MOOCs, administrators and professors are suddenly being pressed into taking sides. “Are you for or against online education?” It’s a question that some administrators (like the University of Virginia’s Teresa Sullivan) are likely to suffer the axe for siding one way or another. Continue reading