Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Reflections on open courses

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community
This is a really nice reflection on open courses and it's great to get George Siemens's perspective on the subject, especially as I am partnering with him on one. His history and mine are intermingled, both on the subject of open courses and on the subject of networks. But what makes it interesting is that though we see and experience many of the same things, and draw many of the same conclusions, our interpretations are in some places remarkably different. This isn't the place to do a detailed critique of his post, though.

Still, a tantalizing bit of interpretation, just to give you a sense of the sort of thought that goes through my mind when I read George on these subjects. He writes, for example, "Whatever can be easily duplicated cannot serve as the foundation for economic value. Integration and connectedness are economic value points." Well, let's even admit that this is true. To me, in some important sense, it's irrelevant. I'm not interested, in a way George is, in "economic value." Because I'm not interested in deriving advantage out of scarcity. To me, this is a catering to a set of values that we ought to replace.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
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