http://www.xplanazine.com/2003/04/lessons-from-american-idol-and-open-source-creating-interactivity-in-education Thu, 21 Aug 2008 04:20:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.1 http://www.xplanazine.com/2003/04/lessons-from-american-idol-and-open-source-creating-interactivity-in-education#comment-371 Rob Reynolds Thu, 24 Apr 2003 19:28:00 +0000 http://www.xplanazine.com/2003/04/lessons-from-american-idol-and-open-source-creating-interactivity-in-education#comment-371 Rob, it sounds like we are both having Cluetrain Manifesto flashbacks this evening! I think the business about students being treated like passive consumers of educational products, just like other kinds of products (MICROSOFT) is very true. a big difference is that professors have somehow managed to acrue an enormous amount of moral authority - a kind of moral authority that Bill Gates or MacDonalds dont' have. so while we feed our students their Happy Meals of educational fodder, the students are often hoodwinked into thinking that this is the ambrosia of the gods. I continue to be staggered by how many students assume there is something wrong with them if they are not satisfied with their schooling - as opposed to realizing that there are things wrong with the system, radical things that are perhaps only going to be fixed with a realignment of ownership and control in the curriculum, just as you suggest here. Rob, it sounds like we are both having Cluetrain Manifesto flashbacks this evening! I think the business about students being treated like passive consumers of educational products, just like other kinds of products (MICROSOFT) is very true. a big difference is that professors have somehow managed to acrue an enormous amount of moral authority - a kind of moral authority that Bill Gates or MacDonalds dont’ have. so while we feed our students their Happy Meals of educational fodder, the students are often hoodwinked into thinking that this is the ambrosia of the gods. I continue to be staggered by how many students assume there is something wrong with them if they are not satisfied with their schooling - as opposed to realizing that there are things wrong with the system, radical things that are perhaps only going to be fixed with a realignment of ownership and control in the curriculum, just as you suggest here.

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