I suggest we compare the controversy of MOOCs that swirls about today with the Mock Turtle from Alice and Wonderland.
The sad plight of the Mock Turtle is that he thought he was a substitute for real (education) but it turns out he is not a “Mock” (education).

The Mock Turtle describe his education in the “sea” and tries to compare it to Alice’s “gentrified” education.

He tries to understand the poems she recites, as proof of the superiority of her education, ironically she cannot understand the poetry she recites either. (She can only repeat what she has been spoon-fed, but does not understand it}

The Mock Turtle’s school is a school of “fish”, and Alice’s school is an institute of learning (University).

For MOOCs to be compared with traditional University education is equally a misunderstanding. What one learns in the sea, in a “school of fish”, is different from the what on learns in a university.

And of course the real Teacher in either scenerio is the Tortoise…or the one who taught us.

I suggest that the “one that taught us” is not always in the University but can be in the sea…even in a school of peers.