>There has been a great deal of discussion and activity here at the U. of I.
>regarding the development of "U I On-Line"--a series of programs and
>courses offered over the web. What I find striking in all of this is that
>the motivation for most of it, from the administrative side, seems to be
>economic angst, worry very focused on the "markets" that are possible for
>other universities that are the earliest to develop such programs. The
>social niche idea is complicated--both universities and non-university
>programs are competing to grab shares of a very broad educational market.
>And, much of the debate is carried along by rhetorics of "access"--making
>education accessible for all sorts of people otherwise shut out (e.g.,
>adult learners, remote communities). I don't doubt that the web makes such
>access possible, but the rhetorics of access and capital control are pretty
>tightly woven, and I wonder about the extent to which we're just
>rearranging geographies of "access"--shifting who learns where and who
>profits when.
>
>Kevin
>
>
mmm. New Technologies in the hands of the human race - kinda like giving a
hammer to a juggler and saying "go fix stuff."
Basically, it may be the right tool, but what the hell do jugglers know
about fixing things? It's "on with the show!"...
we are, on the civility-evolutionary scale, still barbarians. Barbarians is as
barbarians does.
diane
"Every tool is a weapon if you hold it right."
Ani Difranco
*********************************
diane celia hodges
faculty of education
university of british columbia
vancouver, bc canada
tel: (604)-253-4807
email: dchodges who-is-at interchange.ubc.ca