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In reply to the discussion: College Professors Are About to Get Really Mad at President Obama [View all]joshcryer
(62,347 posts)168. "and always will"
Dark ages speak here. This is the capitalist method of education. It will die. Soon. Bye bye "specialized knowledge that fitted people to do certain kinds of work." Specialization will die as the rise of the robots destroys specialization and the division of labor.
Embrace it or die.
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It's only a historical accident that has research done at universities subsidized by students
Recursion
Jul 2013
#10
Because it is broke. Or, more to the point, it's making students and their families go broke.
Recursion
Jul 2013
#35
You know what, if you can't live a modest living on a PH.D. after teaching for eighteen years then
nebenaube
Jul 2013
#63
A university is primarily invested in research. It's secondary mission is education.
Gravitycollapse
Jul 2013
#81
*some* universities. others aren't research institutions, primarily. units of higher education
HiPointDem
Jul 2013
#91
to an equally substantive, cogent comment. chait has no 'argument'. he has only an opinion,
HiPointDem
Jul 2013
#146
It does require a practitioner community. It doesn't require being in the same room as them.
Recursion
Jul 2013
#152
you don't even understand what practitioner community means. students are part of that
HiPointDem
Jul 2013
#201
And we should get rid of mechanical wheat-threshers, too. All those farmhands lost their jobs (nt)
Recursion
Jul 2013
#4
such a stupid comment. the professed point of freeing people from manual labor was so they
HiPointDem
Jul 2013
#79
yes, job training is indeed one of the purposes of higher education, and always has been.
HiPointDem
Jul 2013
#149
"the original purpose was religious" is a vague statement that obscures the reality; it was the
HiPointDem
Jul 2013
#154
As if critical thinking isn't low enough in this country. Lets lower the bar some more. nt
adirondacker
Jul 2013
#8
I went to a state liberal arts college where seminar/debate was a mandatory part of
adirondacker
Jul 2013
#17
I actually think smaller colleges are part of the solution. There should be no reason
adirondacker
Jul 2013
#36
I got a degree because I wanted to learn what I learned. People shouldn't need a degree to get a job
Recursion
Jul 2013
#37
I think that diminshes what a degree actually is supposed to represent. I know plenty of good test
adirondacker
Jul 2013
#42
I agree with where you went with that, but what happened with vocational training? Don't they
adirondacker
Jul 2013
#48
oh, they'll still pay plenty. the only difference will be that they'll pay it to the gates-google-
HiPointDem
Jul 2013
#77
"The first five"? MIT offers every course in its UG catalog for free right now. (nt)
Recursion
Jul 2013
#164
there is no degree, and no credit. if you want credit a/o a degree you will pay. it will never
HiPointDem
Jul 2013
#167
show me where mit is going to make their degrees free. show me where they are offering free
HiPointDem
Jul 2013
#171
If OCW becomes accredited, the whole artificial scarcity of credits goes out the window.
joshcryer
Jul 2013
#180
if it's so 'explicit,' where is the explicit statement, recursion? quit blowing smoke. your links
HiPointDem
Jul 2013
#187
Are you joking? Face to face courses are the last bastion of proper education.
Gravitycollapse
Jul 2013
#83
The reason that college tuition has risen is NOT instructional costs. It is primarily three things:
leveymg
Jul 2013
#13
It's actually a similar problem to housing - declining interest rates have inflated prices.
reformist2
Jul 2013
#18
Hell yes. I brought my pool noodle every Saturday and floated while pondering stochastic processes
Recursion
Jul 2013
#27
Too funny. Maybe the colleges of the future will have waterslides and rollercoasters.
reformist2
Jul 2013
#34
bullshit. what part of the payroll, recursion? high-paid useless administrators.
HiPointDem
Jul 2013
#85
And they build waterslides and lazy rivers and alumni houses and football stadiums
Recursion
Jul 2013
#156
yes, the useless administrators do indeed build waterslides, and they do it *in order to*
HiPointDem
Jul 2013
#159
doubtful since most of those large lecture classes were taught by the grad students who also
HiPointDem
Jul 2013
#92
I also think some people, no matter how much school, just can't code a lick. Either because....
Logical
Jul 2013
#39
I agree with Chait that a MOOC isn't particularly different from a large lecture session
Recursion
Jul 2013
#33
"those ridiculous online training activities that are common in the corporate and academic world"
HiPointDem
Jul 2013
#87
While I question his motivation, he is absolutely correct. The author of this piece fails to
Egalitarian Thug
Jul 2013
#41
if it's needless, then we don't need moocs either. if qualification inflation is the real problem,
HiPointDem
Jul 2013
#93
i'm not the one who brought up 'needless' degrees, you did. so in fact it's you doing any
HiPointDem
Jul 2013
#161
we can outsource obama's job and save millions as well. or any president for that matter nt
msongs
Jul 2013
#49
no more likely to watch something less rigorous. college is not a video game.
HiPointDem
Jul 2013
#95
You remove the necessary intellectual challenge of true education with this technique.
Pholus
Jul 2013
#135
It's basically DIY education. If that's what they're offering, tuition ought to be $300 a year.
reformist2
Jul 2013
#196
the object is to eliminate real college for a large part of the population. any claim that moocs
HiPointDem
Jul 2013
#94
Going forward we should subsidize the education so this expense is not there - like other countries
on point
Jul 2013
#103
i doubt that one has thought of them at all. the point is to support the administration.
HiPointDem
Jul 2013
#96
The federal government needs to man up and spend the freakin money to fund education.
liberal_at_heart
Jul 2013
#64
Thank you. This is one of the biggest problems with our education system right now.
liberal_at_heart
Jul 2013
#68
you are not the only one who is old fashioned. There are many of us who want the government to
liberal_at_heart
Jul 2013
#71
I took a couple of online courses. I read some and took a few multiple choice tests. That was the
liberal_at_heart
Jul 2013
#72
Online classes should definitely be an option and they are. I'm glad you have the option and
liberal_at_heart
Jul 2013
#76
Then you didn't engage with the course. Don't feel bad; plenty of students don't engage in person
Recursion
Jul 2013
#160
the research also shows that the overwhelming majority of people who start moocs never go
HiPointDem
Jul 2013
#221
Tuition has increased because universities have seen massive cuts in public funding.
Gravitycollapse
Jul 2013
#84
Online education should offer students the same opportunities as personal education.
alp227
Jul 2013
#97
Let's just computerize everything and get rid of those pesky people.
highprincipleswork
Jul 2013
#98
There are many ways to gauge agency and level of education is one of them.
Gravitycollapse
Jul 2013
#105
Obtaining a PhD in physics is a legitimation of your knowledge of physics.
Gravitycollapse
Jul 2013
#108
So it seems your goal is simply to reduce the overall level of education...
Gravitycollapse
Jul 2013
#112
If student learning subsidizes degree programs, there's something wrong with that.
joshcryer
Jul 2013
#113
Higher education should be free to anyone who wants to do the work required to get the degree.
Gravitycollapse
Jul 2013
#114
Well, there you go, more useless parasites will be losing their worthless positions
Fumesucker
Jul 2013
#109
At this juncture you think actual facts have anything to do with political decisions?
Fumesucker
Jul 2013
#115
The people pay attention to what the media point at as the next shiny object du jour
Fumesucker
Jul 2013
#124
Next thing you know Obama will be looking under the Oval Office rug for the 90% failures
Fumesucker
Jul 2013
#126
I don't disagree with that, I think a lot of people just aren't interested though
Fumesucker
Jul 2013
#133
what we're actually witnessing is the death of journalism & scholarship, and their replacement
HiPointDem
Jul 2013
#136
Do you have more or less access to good reporting now than you did 15 years ago?
Recursion
Jul 2013
#174
that depends on what you label as 'reporting' & as 'access'. every capitalist restructuring
HiPointDem
Jul 2013
#184
oh you individual you. and that's all that really matters, isn't it? that individuals like you
HiPointDem
Jul 2013
#193
for the old gatekeepers, new ones, and fewer of them. except that they're pretty much the
HiPointDem
Jul 2013
#197
yes, they took a cut of sales, in other words you paid amazon. so how big was their cut,
HiPointDem
Jul 2013
#200