The Professor's Big Stage By Thomas Friedman Analysis

The Reality of Online Open Access Education Thomas L. Friedman, an American journalist and columnist for The New York Times, seeks to demonstrate the benefits of a blended educational model in “The Professor’s Big Stage”. His article focuses on open online education and its rising popularity; after attending a conference convened by MIT and Harvard, Friedman shares his thought on the topic of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course), which are online course databases containing open and unlimited access to both traditional and interactive course components. He argues that a blend of online lectures and in-class activities with a proficient professor is the ideal education model. Friedman utilizes storytelling to draw in his audience, and further

He begins his article by describing his meeting with a Harvard professor who has a massive student base that enjoys his lectures. This technique slowly draws in the audience, while steadily introducing the supportive components to the argument. He seamlessly combines an example corresponding to the argument with a story to endorse his argument without the reader fully realizing it. Furthermore, storytelling has been known to be a more vivid method of delivering information, Friedman, in doing so, created an image for the audience that not only drew in their attention, but also made the article and its arguments more memorable. Storytelling has the ability to plant ideas and thoughts into the audience’s brain; Friedman chose storytelling for that reason: so that the audiences’ thoughts would be synchronized with the

Firstly, mentioning Michael Sandel’s Chinese subtitled lectures, which have found massive success and popularity in China, Friedman illustrates the reality of online, open access, lecture videos. Additionally, Friedman provides the audience with an approximate impact of open access learning by indicating the magnitude of people listening to the lectures. Progressing further into the article, the author elaborates on the benefits of a blended model, by noting the success of San Jose state, which is using MIT online lectures for learning and class time for discussion. Additionally, Friedman points out that the parentage of passing individuals went from 60 to 90 percent. Here, he wishes to demonstrate that the model is truly beneficial, and that it should be utilized by colleges to increase the amount of graduates. Shifting to an unrelated example, Friedman compares the transition from GM motors to Toyota due to a technological breakthrough with the transition of traditional college classes to a blended model of online lectures and classes. This comparison allows for a critique of the conventional model of education, and how a transition to MOOC is a more intelligent choice. Lastly, Friedman mentions online accounting courses that are being used by Harvard students. He emphasizes that Harvard does not even offer introductory