DashLearn – the Amazon Dash for Learning
[Following on from my piece on Pokemon Go, this week’s thing is Amazon Dash, so getting in with a “for learning” piece before anyone else. And in case it isn’t sledgehammer obvious, it’s parody]
“This month has seen the launch of Amazon Dash – easy buttons to order everyday items that has completely revolutionised shopping. Amazon understand that we live n a modern, high tempo world and need to take instant action. Sadly, this attitude has not permeated the ivory towers of education, where 100% of lectures take place exactly as they did 200 years ago. While the internet disrupts every aspect of society, it is impossible to find a university academic who has even heard of the internet, let alone knows how to harness its potential for learning.
Which is why DashLearn is promising a revolution in how we learn. As with shopping people don’t want to go to a physical university to get an education, or to wait 3 years to get a degree. They want to learn stuff, and have feedback, instantly, at a time and place that is suitable for them. Sitting on the loo and need some history knowledge? Press the button. Cooking dinner and want some coding assessment? Hit that button.
DashLearn buttons deliver a nugget of knowledge at the press of a button. Press and hold to speak to an accredited expert. They come in 15 different disciplines, including computing, math, history and psychology. Partners including Premier Inn, Virgin and RyanAir have already signed up to help us disrupt education.
(“learning”, “elearning”, “knowledge” are all currently filed as patents)”
2 Comments
Rob Farrow
It’s not an obvious parody! Which makes it an effective parody.
I imagine that if there was an OU version of this where you could hit the button to conference with a tutor some people would quite like that – almost like a panic button of sorts. Not so the tutors would be so keen, though it would probably suit some to be on call if the money was right.
Pay per minute support like this would open up the possibility of charging people less to take an unmoderated version of the course who then pay a premium for any support they request. It might make the supported course look like relatively good value. It could even be a way to monetize MOOC or other open content. But it would just come down to the psychological difference of pressing the button (rather than just picking up the phone) and whether it made a difference.
Maybe in 5 years time everyone’s house will be full of these buttons…
John Kirriemuir
In this age of Trump, Brexit, Leicester City being champions and the Internet of Things, that’s … a little too plausible.
Deep in the bowels of Amazon, someone is going to come across your/this post, think it’s a good idea, then escalate it through various management levels and by this time next year DashLearn buttons will be a thing. And when the history of the messy lurches of this era of education is written, authors will trace it back to this post.
Oh, Martin.