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Letter published in The Technology Source, July/August 2000.
Also available online from the journal.
Please cite as: Deflem, Mathieu. 2000. “Online Ambiguities.” Letter. The Technology Source, July/August 2000. Online: http://technologysource.org/article/online_ambiguities/.
In a recent letter to the editor, Stephen Downes (2000) attributed the following statement to an online paper that I wrote: "In a position paper posted on his own Web site, he [Mathieu Deflem] even goes so far as to say of online learning that 'This form of intrusion goes completely against our position as educators for which we claim sovereign rights and obligations'."
I want to clarify that my paper does not address "online learning" at all; instead it criticizes commercial companies that have been invading colleges and universities to buy and post lecture notes without instructors' permission. It would be foolish to categorize this specific practice as a manifestation of online learning without further qualification. My argument does not concern the online nature of certain practices presented as learning; rather, it addresses issues of control and representation of these practices. In my paper, the "form of intrusion" that Downes quotes clearly pertains to the following: "On-line note companies do not ask instructors for permission but, at the same time, the companies explicitly post and advertise the notes with reference to the courses and the universities where they are taught, identified by the university's course title, section number, and/or professor's name."
Readers interested in my campaign against commercial note companies can visit
my Web site campaign, "Free Education Now!" at this address:
http://www.sla.purdue.edu/people/soc/mdeflem/education.htm (now here)
Reference
Downes, S. (2000, March/April). "A response to 'Where do we go from here?'" The Technology Source. Retrieved 30 May 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://horizon.unc.edu/TS/letters/2000-03.asp
