Stephen Downes

In a bit of an "I told you so" article the Chronicle gleefully lets us know that tech-guru Michael Wesch has changed his ways because the tech tricks no longer worked. "The students thought it was chaos." And in words that must have been magic to the Chronicle's ears, he said, "the No. 1 thing that was missing from it was a sense of purpose." Or in other words, "It doesn’t matter what method you use if you do not first focus on one intangible factor: the bond between professor and student." So now it's away with "remote-control-like gadgets that let students ring in answers" and in with the traditional lecture, tech now placed firmly into the background. I know a lot of people really liked what Michael Wesch did, but what really worked for him was that he never really strayed far from the classroom and the traditional university environment at all. This is the inevitable result. See also D'Arcy Norman, who has a similar comment.