October 5, 2012
Building Democratic Learning
Fred Garnett,
Wikiquals, October 5, 2012.
Excellent commentary on the changing nature of MOOCs. "MOOCs originally offered the possibility of designing learning which is NOT pedogically-driven and subject-based. but are now being colonised by the new Open Access model to University courses, which is driven by American University business models." The author offers four major recommendations for a post-MOOC future:
- Develop a Community of Innovators, maybe even a maverick network; a community of practice for innovation in education
- Develop learning design skills which are based on new 21st Century pedagogies; such as the Open Context Model of Learning or the Emergent Learning Model or Connectivism or e-pedagogies…
- Design learning experiences that offer complexity, authenticity and engagement; what the Digital Practitioner work called “artfully constructed student-centred learning experiences“
- Develop them for the society in which we wish to live, for me that is building participatory democratic processes.
[Link] [Comment][Tags: Connectivism, United States, Networks, Experience, Wikipedia]
World University Rankings 2012-13
Variosu Authors,
Times Higher Education, October 5, 2012.
Because this list will be the topic of discussion, let me explain once again how these rankings function: a particular interest determines the policy change they would like to see, they release a high profile ranking based on that policy preference, and then institutions adopt the policy in order to rank higher on the list. These rankings should not be taken seriously. A different ranking (with parameters like, say, low tuition, openness, accessibility, good for society) would produce a completely different list. Academica lists the media stampede to uncritically propagate the THE's self-interested rankings: Times Higher Education, Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Maclean's On Campus, THE World University Rankings 2012-13.
[Link] [Comment][Tags: Accessibility, Tuition and Student Fees, Academia]
Future of Higher Education
George Siemens,
elearnspace, October 4, 2012.
In case you haven't seen it elsewhere, George Siemens writes: "On Monday, Oct 8, we kick of the Current State/Future of Higher Education open online course. This course will run for six weeks, covering these topics. We’re using Desire2Learn as a platform, in addition to the gRSShopper software (developed by Stephen Downes and used in our open courses since 2008)." If you want to join, registration is open: http://edfuture.mooc.ca/cgi-bin/login.cgi?action=Register.
[Link] [Comment][Tags: Connectivism, Traditional and Online Courses, RSS]
A true(er) history of MOOCs
Leigh Blackall,
Open and networked learning, October 4, 2012.
As "the publishing businesses and American universities are scrambling to occupy the MOOC meme, riding a bandwagon of value creating market development," writes Leigh Blackall, "I've ignored it until now." But now MOOCs are being talked about at his new job at LaTrobe University (congrats, btw) and he has to take a position. "So, what am I to do, when drawn into discussions at La Trobe referencing MOOC? Is it an opportunity to create space for the development of open and networked educational practices, or is the shallowness of interest and awareness ultimately a barrier to such an effort? Is the time right, in other words?" Yes, the time is right. And it might not hurt to leave a few copies of The Future of Learning in a Networked World lying around, as that forsaw the development of MOOCs as much as anything else.
Open Architecture: Our Course Could be Your Life
Jim Groom,
Keep Learning, October 4, 2012.
Jim Groom offers opinions on where open online courses should be headed - and it's not straight into content-silos such as those offered by the big-name MOOCs. "No students in these corporate-wrapped course spaces are asked to take any ownership of the work they do. There is no aggregation or syndication, and even if there was—given that scaling is at the heart of this business model—how much of the architecture will be freely shared?" He points to Martin Hawksey’s excellent blog post Show me your aggregation architecture and I’ll show you mine, and I will say, I've always put my aggregation engine out there, hoping someone will build something open source and great (and ideally in Perl, though that might be hoping for the moon).
[Link] [Comment][Tags: Content Syndication, Traditional and Online Courses, Web Logs, Open Source]
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