Trying to start again with some issues from last year. Through one of the hotseats for the Networked Learning Conference I had tried to find a copy of a paper by Richard Hall. I had given up but now today I try again and find that Amazon has a few pages so I can get an idea of it. Not sure how much I can quote but here are a few words, there is mention of a project to " imagine alternatives that reclaim humanity from the fetishization of an Empire of things."

So the attraction of mobile devices is presented as a fetish. The USA as Empire is assumed, as it often is.

Previously I found a blog post that I guessed was similar to the article. Today I found another one that is much more general about the neoliberal university. I am beginning to wonder if the concern has much to do with technology as such. Sometimes it appears there is a method of critique that can be applied to anything. So I don't expect to discover much about mobile technology as such. and the book is about £60, hardback only. OK if you're already inside a neoliberal university I guess.

I hope that more of the content becomes available as blog posts so it can be public. Proposed papers for future conferences can coexist.

Meanwhile there is a MOOC coming up with Bruno Latour. I am going to try to follow it. He also has a site for a version of a book at Modes Of Existence . This continues something from the proposal that we were never modern. So I should get a better idea of how modernity is understood. Was there some time long ago when universities had no commercial pressure? Can we get back there?

The MOOC or something like it is now more or less normal technology. The knocking copy is not going to stop it. It can be contested, like universities and other education.