I am not a Luddite. There, I said it. By the same token, I don’t have a sense of what McGill is after with its entry into the world of massively open online courses (MOOCs). I imagine because it is like me with my smart phone- I got one because I don’t want to be left behind and face my old age lost in technologies I can’t use and don’t understand. However, in the case of MOOCs, my gut tells me if we become too reliant on these trends, we will lose the core of what a university is. We will lose direct contact with students- which should be the heart of the enterprise. Here is something I saw regarding this on the weekend (yes while following Facebook and Twitter)…
I m a professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at McGill University.