Banned in Colorado

Fort Collins Colorado is a nice little town, a convenient place to stop for a burger if you are driving from Denver to Calgary, say. It houses Colorado's "other" University - not the one with the football team. Fort Collins Tech, or whatever it's called, is famous mostly for its Veterinary School, whose major research topic I forget, but I think it had something to do with shooting pigs in the name of military wound research.

I mention this because I got into some trouble with a Prof there who took strong exception to my defense of MOOCs. I guess it shouldn't surprise me that those who claim to teach critical thinking draw the line at any criticism of their own thinking. Historiann, as she styles herself, is an Associate Professor of History at that school, whose actual name is Colorado State University. She banned me from her blog.

She and most of her adulatory commentators form a sort of echo chamber holding their hands over their ears and loudly proclaiming that MOOCs won't work, mixing in occasional imprecations against MOOC founders, especially Daphne Koller, the Stanford AI prof who co-founded Coursera.

It's too bad, since I'm a big believer that you can learn a lot from people who disagree with you. Unfortunately, most people can't stand to have their prejudices challenged.

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