A School Project​™  www.schoooool.

com  

SCHOOL UNIVERSITY  
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE 
 
On a functional level ​School University​ was an online interactive game show, 
with content delivered via Instagram with accounts and scores registered 
through the accompanying web-app. When describing it to people for the first 
time we would often draw a comparison, calling it “HQ Trivia meets MIT 
OpenCourseWare meets Instagram”. While this does a fair job of explaining 
what the project was experientially, we find it also serves as a good 
introduction into a deeper level of inquiry that we were hoping that the 
project might provoke. 
 
Within the past decade, accompanying rising levels of student debt, a 
tremendous amount of scrutiny has come upon the United States’ education 
system, particularly with relation to its role within the United States as an 
economic machine and the resulting societal fallout. There is a bitter irony 
to our situation: within the current epoch, the so-called Age of Information, 
access to information and knowledge is at the fingertips of more individuals 
than at any point in history, and yet the price of institutional education 
continues either climbing out of reach for the average American or, just as 
insidiously, enwraps them within an economic bondage of debt, contradicting 
the idealization of education existing as a liberating force.   
 
Cultural revolutionaries have been waging a quiet war against systems of 
education for decades, centuries, and likely as long as education systems have 
existed, claiming obsoletion and arguing for more perfect models. We believe 
the noise of these dialogues will only continue to amplify in the coming 
decade. Presently, political voices are pronouncing the elimination of 
student-debt and offering unanimous free public college education - enticing 
propositions that summon opposing choruses chanting words such as 
“feasibility” and “budgets”.   
 
Amidst the territories of this domestic dispute there’s another converging 
domain of discussion: the realm of networked technology, a presence felt 
ubiquitously and ingrained deeply within the global collective consciousness. 
With respect to this project we were interested in referencing MOOCS (Massive 
Open Online Courses) as a touchpoint. While “Tech” and its constituents have 
become a conglomerate persona non grata within political discourse among 
liberal and conservative critics alike, among techno-optimists the promise of 
technology still spells progress. Institutions and corporations are in a 
nascent stage of experimentation with online offerings that at the least are 
meant to augment classroom experiences, but which in some cases are meant to 
completely replace the physical classroom. These forays intend to drive down 

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costs and promote access to learning while still offering the same level of 
education, potentially alleviating some of the shortcomings of our 
aforementioned contemporaneous educational woes.   
 
Of course these types of online offerings do not exist because of some 
profound magnanimity, but instead arise from capitalistic underpinnings. The 
engine of corporate and institutional expansion is fueled by and for monetary 
return on investment, another ironic instance of the knotted entanglement 
between incentives, capitalism, and corporatism within the education system.   
 
In positioning the project we were particularly interested in playing with 
these intersections, by acknowledging the ways in which technological 
innovations have enabled the improvement and proliferation of education within 
societies historically, paired with a lightheartedly dystopian vision of an 
education platform provided by a company as omnipotent as Instagram that has 
been gamified to suit our receding attention spans and commodified palettes. 
 
When we were working on this project and deciding upon the modes of 
interaction and touchpoints our goal was not to argue for or against the use 
of this type of technology within education, but instead merely to exaggerate 
features, as if to say, “Here we are, where will we go?”. We’re hoping that 
by referencing these topics that we might further the ongoing cultural 
dialogue by spreading awareness to a wider audience.   
 
In the spirit of education, we’ve collected some reading materials on the 
subject of contemporary education and the role of technology in it for the 
interested reader: 
 
 
 
 
 
FURTHER READING 
 
 
Designing Knowledge Syllabus   
Class Syllabus for Jeffrey Schnapp (Harvard, MetaLab) for “Designing 
Knowledge” 
 
Paolo Freire’s Pedagogy Of The Oppressed: Book Summary 
Summary of an influential work by a political activist, educator and 
philosopher 
 

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From A Pedagogy for Liberation to Liberation from Pedagogy 

Retrospective critique of Paolo Freire’s ideology & critical pedagogy movement 
 
“No Grades, No Tests at ‘Free School’” 
CBS video reporting on the Brooklyn Free School, a school that has no grades 
and no tests and focuses on fostering the interests of students. 
 
Why Education Is So Difficult  
Essay arguing that the problems we face in education are due to the flaws and 
incompatibilities of three foundational ideas. 
 
The Case Against Credentialism 
Atlantic Article arguing against the prevailing modalities of credentialism in 
the the U.S. educational and corporate landscapes 
 
Why College Is Expensive 
CNBC video reporting and investigating what comprises the exorbitant prices of 
college tuition  
 
Let’s Teach A History Of Ideas, Not A History Of Individuals 
Op-ed arguing its title 
 
Spaces Of The Learning Self 
Article / Essay on “Self Design” through a historical (60s) lens. 
 
‘Education Without School: How It Can Be Done’ Book Review 
Book Review of a book by Ivan Illich, an outspoken philosopher who is well 
known for his ideology of “Deschooling” 
 
Deschooling Society 
Said paper / essay by Ivan Illich 
 
USASPENDING.GOV 
Link to the Department of Education budget. Interesting interactive site that 
allows you to explore the allocation of budgets across government departments. 
 
Dean for graduate education to take leave, start new university 
Dean of graduate education at MIT steps down to start a new experimental 
research university. 
 
Takedown Of Online Education 
Article / report arguing against the efficacy of fully online programs 
  

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Online Courses Are Harming the Students Who Need the Most Help 
Op-ed arguing that online courses are not beneficial for all learners. 
 
An Online Education Breakthrough? A Master’s Degree For A Mere $7,000 
Article detailing Georgia Tech’s new online Master’s program. 
 
Promises And Pitfalls Of Online Education 
Brooking’s report detailing findings on the ups and downs of online education. 
 
Is Real Educational Reform Possible? If So, How? 
Essay on education reform from Peter Gray, a contemporary critic of modern 
institutional education systems. 
 
Why Our Coercive System of Schooling Should Topple 
Another essay from Peter Gray. 
 
Sherry Turkle Says There’s a Wrong Way to Flip a Classroom 
Interview with Sherry Turkle (MIT) who critiques ‘flipping’ (reading via 
online coursework outside of class, homework / interactive work during class) 
classrooms 
 
An Open Letter to Sherry Turkle On MOOCs and Online Learning 
“4 critiques of the education chapter of the wonderful 'Reclaiming 
Conversation.’” 
 
Wendy Brown on Education 
Interview with Wendy Brown (Berkeley) on neoliberalism’s effects on education 
and research in the US. 
 
An Educator Makes the Case That Higher Learning Needs to Grow Up 
Book review for The New Education by Cathy Davidson 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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