Stephen Downes

I think that whether you see a tsunami depends a lot on where you look and what you're looking for. And frankly, I don't think Silicon Valley is the best place to look for a tsunami. So why would anyone look there? Why, for that matter, would you look at Alpha School, AltSchool, Summit, or Rocketship? Take MOOCs. Class Central reports "MOOCs and MOOC platforms continued to grow, even after the crazy 'Year of the MOOC' prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions... and our 64,500 courses. If you just look at Silicon Valley, you see failure to convert free online courses into a commercial juggernaut. Big surprise. But if you extend your gaze somewhat, you see a world full of free and open online learning. Now the jury may be out on AI, but I have to say, you can't really use MOOCs as an example of 'failure' with which to criticize them the way Audrey Watters does in this post. And you can't use what's happening in Silicon Valley as your measuring stick.