Week 1

Feeling like the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland.... I'm late!

I think I will do the 'one' thing this week.

Ok ... we have clickers and are using them at my Uni so I will skip the first one today; number two sound interesting but not today; four and five sound exciting... but today number three wins. I think that will be the most relevant and powerful one for me and one I do need to get my head round.


Watching.... Howard Rheingold’s interview with George Siemens.

...How Stephen Downes and George Siemens pioneered the development of massive open online courses where the participants’ knowledge and understanding is developed and co-created by articulating ‘connectivist’ links between resources and people on the web...

Observations and Think points!

University of Manitoba Decision to make the entire instructional process available. No additional cost in making the course available to 1000 learners versus 20, "no additional costs to us as educators".

Surely there are costs involved if tutorial support or moderated discussion areas, feedback on learner activities, posts etc.

In addition in my institution a considerable resource is provided to trouble shoot technology problems when student first connect to on-line learning. Is their an assumption that learners sort everything themselves.

Repeated MOOCs over several years 10000 participants so far! 

Elluminate has licensing fees! Stable and fast broadband and web-servers to host content also has cost. The administrative processes for 'validating courses'. How does the 'team meet the costs for creating and delivering MOOCs.  I may be missing the point here... I hope to become enlightened.

Educational providers should stop providing learning spaces and allow learners to bring their own spaces. 

This again assumes that learners already have and are able to create these spaces and use them for learning. 

The students referred to already appear to be tech savvy.

Focus on the course content being a conduit for connections, not for students to learn the content'. 

This certainly challenges my thinking to a degree. The students I have taught have come with the desire and need to develop a sound knowledge of the content and develop skills and wider knowledge to become registered nurses. There was a definite focus on learning and mastering the content.

I do like the focus on the learning and the community continuing beyond the end of the course and the opportunity for the learner to 'own' their contribution. Nothing worse than loosing access to everything in the University environment once you complete. 

Challenges institutions to think about how they provision for staff, do you need an expert on your pay roll or can you 'use others for elsewhere? This model would rely on the willingness of the experts to be available to contribute to your course, but you really need a back up if they are unavailable. Many of the courses at my institution do this within their 'on campus' delivery courses, using video captured lectures from 'outside experts in the field' and streamed to students through VLE.

I am intrigued by the student global learner, and the networked learning not being contained in one individual in one environment. This MOOC is certainly providing the global opportunity.

Need to design a distributed learning model. Challenges for existing universities . 

Distributed learning model will meet costs. Global faculty member, Institutions joining together to deliver!

DL model allows any existing educator to influence a global audience far reaching beyond the 'instutution/ classroom without increasing costs dramatically.

Educator is a contributing guide.

Dissolution of the boundaries of institutional control!

Wow.