Back in November, Justin Reich wrote a post titled “Will Free Benefit the Rich?” (re-posted as “Open Educational Resources Expand Educational Inequalities“). In it, he outlines two possible futures. In scenario 1, everyone benefits from free online resources in ways that narrow the gap between the rich and the poor. In scenario 2, everyone benefits, but the well-off benefit more, so the gap widens. What caused a fuss was his claim that the empirical data we have so far supports scenario 2: in the year of Occupy, saying that something is going to increase inequality is going to stir up strong emotions.

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Several people have written some useful comments on my recent “where are we going?” posts. It’s exactly the kind of feedback I was after, so here are my answers.

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