新编研究生综合英语教程TEXT8.ppt

12 . To put it quite bluntly, MOOCs are a speculative bubble, a product being pumped up and overvalued by pro-business government support and a lot of hot air in the media. Like all speculative bubbles — especially those that originate in Silicon Valley — it will eventually burst. Columnists, politicians, university administrators, and educational entrepreneurs can all talk in such glowing terms about the onrushing future of higher education only because it hasn’t happened yet; the MOOC can still be all things to all people because it is, in the most literal sense of the word, a speculation about what it might someday become. While students and professors invest their time and energy, Silicon Valley is betting that MOOCs will be the next big thing in higher education, and politicians like California Governor Jerry Brown are aggressively pushing the state’s public universities to incorporate MOOC’s into their curriculum, gambling that massive, open, and online courseware will be the solution to the state’s continual crisis in higher education funding. 12 . 直接地说，大规模在线开放课程是一个投机泡沫，一个由亲商的政府支持和媒体炒作而产生并高估的产品。像所有的投机泡沫一样——尤其是那些源自硅谷的投机泡沫——它终将会破灭。专栏作家，政治家，大学管理者和教育的企业家都在议论这些关于高等教育未来的热情洋溢的措辞，这只是因为它尚未发生;大规模在线开放课程仍然可以为所有人做所有事，因为从这个词的字面意义上说，它让我们思索未来变化的样子。而当学生和教授将自己的时间和精力投注于此的时候，硅谷打赌说大规模在线开放课程将会是高等教育中的下一个大事件，像加州州长杰里·布朗这样的政治家们都在积极推动该州的公立大学把大规模在线开放课程纳入到他们的课程中去，并确信巨大，开放和在线课件将成为解决该州高等教育经费持续危机的方案。 13. Ontario’s higher education system, as with many other jurisdictions around the world, shares many challenges with California: unsustainable student costs, declining public investment, and austerity-focused politicians. California is often held up as an example for Ontario to emulate. So, if the MOOC frenzy has not fully hit Canada yet, it is safe to bet that it will be there soon. Like California, Ontario may be tempted to take its chances on a speculative bubble, one that dismantles the public university and privileges private interests. It’s a gamble we can’t afford to lose. (1891 wor