MOOCs Shmooks

I think I went to see Turner (and some Blake) but stumbled across this and it caught my attention because it reminded me of the old country.

And that's the thing with bookshops and galleries: you don't always find what you're looking for; there's always the element of surprise. In an age where we're being directed (by communications technologies and the huge second-hand, derivative industry that is made up of reviewers, analysts, gurus, pundits and experts) to like and choose what we ought to like and choose it is difficult to genuinely think for yourself or discover something that hasn't already been summarized, packaged and marketed for you. Even authors you hadn't heard of must be sold as 'the-greatest-author-you-never-heard-of''. 

Anything from the past can be plundered, taken out of context (wasn't that Benjamin?), dusted down and staged for your comfort and consumption. "We aim to please, Sir!"

Back in the land of the pure there are some people making a fuss over Massive Online Open courses (MOOCs). Your first instinct is to ask: who is pushing this, academics or administrators, corporations and the geek brigade? W.D. (Excellent Sheep) writes, there are people out there who are interested in dismantling higher education and selling its parts. In England they go by the name of the Tories. And it's not just higher education. Looks like the NHS will go too. Obviously, someone's going to make a killing here. Crony capitalism (but why not just say capitalism?).

Anything that endures, that represents a sense of place, continuity, must not be allowed to stand in a time of liquid modernity, flexible accumulation. Of course, one has to acknowledge that the old conservative attitudes and the institutions that embodied them were replete with deep and unsettling hierarchies (class distinctions, misogyny). But that is not all that can or should be said about them.

And these so-called 'communication technologies' are just one part of the attack: instantaneity and homogenization..travel light, skim the surface, 'experience' life as an ever revolving sequence of images and spectacles. I say 'communication' but in reality they're more of a mechanism for furthering narcissistic attitudes.

I can eat on the go; and now I can get a university education on the go as well with the help of my trusty mobile phone, as long as I can keep myself away, that is, from the 10,000 books I have on my kindle and the endless t.v. programmes that I've downloaded on my ipad. I can even record my whole fleeting life slipping away and then watch it again on HD.