Comments on: Saudi Arabia: KAUST http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/2009/10/06/saudi-arabia-kaust/ learning, networks, knowledge, technology, community Sat, 4 Feb 2012 22:56:23 -0500 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.4 By: Trevor Cunningham http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/2009/10/06/saudi-arabia-kaust/comment-page-1/#comment-25807 Trevor Cunningham Wed, 07 Oct 2009 09:14:13 +0000 http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/?p=4356#comment-25807 I saw your presentation World Without Course earlier this year, and now it doesn't seem to be available anymore...then I came across this post while searching for it. I'm currently an American K-12 teacher working in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The wife and I actually interviewed with KAUST once and got a breakdown of the current academic trend in the Gulf. Similar to what Texas A&M initiated in Qatar, I believe, KAUST has been set up as a high-level research facility to attract academics. It's easy for educators to overlook the institutional backing that goes into scientific research and development. I've always viewed college courses as relatively residual and celebratory of these larger initiatives, fundraisers, so to speak. Your WWC presentation touched on the subject of academic integrity and validity and this discussion is well and good for general studies. But the KAUST example doesn't highlight a celebration of learning and academic growth as much as it does the financial and industrial core of human development. It's survival, and people will pay dearly for rigorous solutions. I believe that any change in such would simply be a derivative of a much larger change in society. These academic efforts in the Gulf are a reaction to a variety of diminishing resources in the region. I saw your presentation World Without Course earlier this year, and now it doesn’t seem to be available anymore…then I came across this post while searching for it. I’m currently an American K-12 teacher working in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The wife and I actually interviewed with KAUST once and got a breakdown of the current academic trend in the Gulf. Similar to what Texas A&M initiated in Qatar, I believe, KAUST has been set up as a high-level research facility to attract academics. It’s easy for educators to overlook the institutional backing that goes into scientific research and development. I’ve always viewed college courses as relatively residual and celebratory of these larger initiatives, fundraisers, so to speak. Your WWC presentation touched on the subject of academic integrity and validity and this discussion is well and good for general studies. But the KAUST example doesn’t highlight a celebration of learning and academic growth as much as it does the financial and industrial core of human development. It’s survival, and people will pay dearly for rigorous solutions. I believe that any change in such would simply be a derivative of a much larger change in society.

These academic efforts in the Gulf are a reaction to a variety of diminishing resources in the region.

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