Gallagher's Essay 'The Year Of The Moocs'

Out of the three college students, Mendoza, Gregory and Gallagher I think Moocs are right for Gallagher specifically. I chose Gallagher because of what he wrote about in his essay, and I related what he wrote to The Year of the Moocs. I think Moocs are right for Gallagher because his essay stood out, Gallagher wrote a fantasy essay which is very risky and something no one else to do. Gallagher is different, like Moocs. College is a serious thing and Gallagher decided to have fun with it and make a fantasy about himself, this is what makes him risky. I don’t think anyone else would’ve had the gut to do what Gallagher did. I think Moocs are different just like him. For example in The Year of the Moocs, Pappano stated, “Students control how fast they watch lectures.”( Pappano 31) I’m almost positive you can’t slow down the pace of a teacher that is lecturing in a regular college or even make it
The way Gallagher wrote his essay, it just shows he has a lot of confidence, he shows how he feels that he can do anything. Moocs will fit him because he will be in class with students that will grade his paper that will be people you don’t know, maybe people all the way across the globe. Gallagher demonstrates confidence in his essay on page #17 when he states, “Using only a hoe and a large glass of water, I once single- handedly defended a small village in the Amazon Basin from a horde of ferocious army ants.”( Gallagher 17)He is saying this as if he can do it like nothing. Again, Moocs are right for him because needs to be confident about what he’s grading and the test he’s grading which are online. I know this because in The Year of the Mooc Pappano explains, “Coursera uses peer grading: submit an assignment and five people grade it: in turn, you grade it; in turn, you grade five assignments.”( Pappano 32)You need to have a lot of confidence to grade five papers at a time. Which Gallagher definitely