Stephen Downes

I am more or less in agreement with Audrey Watters here (worth noting because that does not always happen). "To address the challenges of AI and more broadly of authoritarianism, schools should not retreat into some mythical, elitist 'tradition' - a return to oral examinations and blue books feels like an inadequate and unimaginative response to this crisis," she writes. "To retain any institutions of higher education in this onslaught from techno-authoritarianism requires - now and hereafter - we redesign them, reorient them towards human knowledge and human flourishing, away from compliance and cowardice." What that means, though, is more difficult to describe exactly. Simply hiring more "teachers and researchers and librarians" doesn't seem to me like it will do the job; it's just the staffing equivalent of using blue books. A reorienting of the structure and purpose of educational institutions will have to follow, away from a focus on 'knowledge' and toward - dare I say it? - community and connection.