Classroom 2.0 Mooc

Classroom 2.0 Mooc has proven to be very informative and useful to my teaching.  Roger Shank spoke one Saturday morning about why large Stanford style Moocs may not work.  He stated, “larger is not better.”  The best learning, according to him, happens when there is a small group with a mentor learning about a subject they are interested in.  He went on to say that so much of what we learn in education useless and that we should focus on the following:

1.  Human relationships

2.  Communication

3.  Reasoning from evidence

I think he has a good point here and, as a result, I’m fine tuning my teaching and asking if what I’m teaching is in line with these three points.  The most salient feature of this Mooc is the beginning when questions are asked, using the polling tools, so the lecturers can, before they present, can get to know the audience and its needs.

Coursera’s Aboriginal Education and Worldviews Mooc

This Mooc couldn’t have been better timing for me.  For my 591 course, I was leading a forum on literacy and Indigenous education.   So far I have learned a lot and, as a result, I now have a better understanding of aboriginal students in my school.  I truly believe it would be beneficial for all Canadians to take part in a Mooc such as this.  One of the best lessons included a Medicine Wheel being used to illustrate the cycles of stereotyping, discrimination, and the resulting damage.  The circle is always turning and one quadrant leads to the next in a clock-wise fashion. This is a powerful tool that I can use in my classes for discussing ways in which people can combat stereotyping.

The one downfall of this Mooc is the lengthy time it takes to download the video streams in the evening in Port Hardy; so it wasn’t easy to just sit down and watch them anytime.

ETMooc    

            During Spring Break, I was able to watch the archived sessions of ETMooc that I had missed. Two salient topics stood out:  Dr. Janet Corral (@edtechcorral)  talked about how Internet providers monitor your usage and adjust your bandwidth accordingly.  I wasn’t aware that this occurred.  Audrey Watters talked about Terms of Service and data ownership.  For me this is so important; we as consumers of Web 2.0 tools should be responsible for our own data and its whereabouts and we should advocate for more comprehensible TOS agreements for the average person.  According to her, Edmoto has one of the best TOS agreements in this regard.  One thing I noticed about ETMOOC, in general, was its franticness.  There was too much going on at any one time.  How does one avoid this frenzied feeling when learning in a Mooc setting?  Perhaps comments could be displayed somewhere else and a reflection period could occur a couple of days later. 

Future Moocs

One thing is for sure; Moocs are a great way to keep life long learning happening.  Coming up next for me are two Moocs geared towards my interests.  I’ve signed up for a 6 week Language Teaching Mooc course and a one-week Twitter4Teachers Mooc.  Even though our two Tech. Ed. Courses are coming to an end, my learning hasn’t ceased.   In so many ways, I feel as though we have just been surfing on top of the wave of tech. education and haven’t really dived deeply into any one subject.  That’s exactly what I plan to do after our courses are finished.  I will take the time to dive deeper into some subjects that peeked my interests in the last three months.  Thanks @_valeriei for introducing me to the world of Moocs.