If I knew how to “get rich quick” you might find something mentioned there, but considering the state of my bank account, it’s obvious I don’t. Hence, no references to get rich quick, thank you very much. eBay, on the other hand. . .:-)

I have a quick reflex to people I perceive who cannot look at a thioing such as the internet without seeing it only as a way to make a buck, much the same as I see real estate developers who cannot look at a mountain and see it as a place to bull doze, pave, and cover with strip malls.

Again, I am not saying you are in any camp.

However, my main point is the pitfall of promoting blogs as a “power to the people” thiing, and then resorting to the blog experts to characterize it.

But wow, does Trackback work fast!

To me this is a symptom of a much greater issue. In my discussions with “learners” (used in the most general form) I’m finding more and more that they don’t want institutions, courses and “teachers” at all. They just want to learn what they need and to the job done. Only the iron grip of qualifications and their certification bodies drags learners back to institutions.

Maybe my experience is disheartening, but virtually none of the students I encounter at educational institutions are there for the learning. It’s always just the qualifications. Real, broad, pervasive learning happens elsewhere.

Alan has a good point about the Irony of always leaning on the experts whenever we do things. I am one of the regular bloggers with little to no readership that Alan contrasts the experts against. One of the reasons…