Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Who Gets To Be An Expert In Education?

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

First, read this account of the (non-)relation between expertise, think tank support and citations in the media of "education experts". As noted by John Warner in this article, "It is cited by Audrey Watters and Sara Goldrick-Rab of Kevin Carey's The End of College: Creating the Future of Learning and the University of Everywhere, 'In this political economy, the experts on education are rarely experts in education, and that is just the way an increasing number of powerful people seem to like it.'" In the two years since the book was published, the criticisms have been borne out: "the MOOC revolution that was supposed to transform into the 'University of Everywhere' has fizzled into targeted corporate training and other very specific applications." Of course, history is not yet over, and Carey's predictions may yet come true, but the deeper question lingers: what made him an "education expert" in the first place?

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Dec 22, 2024 02:02 a.m.

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