The basic premise of Andrew Keen's new book, The Cult of the Amateur is that blogs and other web 2.0 tools have diluted mainstream culture by replacing paid professionals with the bungling attempts of amateurs. He cites the crisis in publishing and film production as examples of the way professionally produced content is gradually losing out to unpaid hobbyists.
All I can say is that my particular field; EFL/ESL the "hobbyists" are light years ahead of the professionals in terms of quality and innovation. English language teaching books have barely come to to terms with the 80's, let alone the twenty first century.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Broadcasting House on May 6
3 comments:
English language teaching books have barely come to to terms with the 80's, let alone the twenty first century.
Amen Brother. ESL books still come with cassettes rather than CDs or having MP3s downloadable from the web site. Our industry is run by technotards.
How can they justify this is in a country as high - tech loving as South Korea?
I ask myself that same question daily. It's also a shame that the English instructors at my university get the least resources despite teaching the most students on campus. We are lucky to have chalk and a chalkboard.
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