The Online Education Controversy and the Future of the University
Nexus Lounge, 12th Floor, OISE
252 Bloor St. West
Toronto ON M5S 1V6
Canada
The neo-liberal reform of the university has had a huge impact on higher education and promises still more changes in the future. Many of these changes have had a negative impact on academic careers, values, and the educational experience. Educational technology plays an important role in the defense of neo-liberal reform, less through actual accomplishment than as a rhetorical justification for supposed "progress". This paper outlines the main claims and consequences of this rhetorical strategy and its actual effects on the university to date.
About the Speaker
Andrew Feenberg
Andrew Feenberg teaches in the School of Communication, Simon Fraser University, where he directs the Applied Communication and Technology Lab. He also serves as Directeur de Progamme at the College International de Philosophie in Paris. He is also recognized as an early innovator in the field of online communication. Feenberg did his PhD with Herbert Marcuse in the late 1960s and early 1970s and was with Marcuse in Paris during the May 1968 events.