Week 19 – MOOCs, Web-enhanced and blended courses
I spent more than 6 hours this week reading, watching videos and exploring tools. Unfortunately, I did not find many connections with what I do or I will do. I enjoyed learning about MOOC and its possibilities; I loved the idea from the beginning; education should be more than a blackboard and a photocopy; more than a lecture and exercises. Sometimes, it feels like we are living already in the future. There is so much to do, to create, to develop, to give. Education is transforming itself into something completely new and I am glad I live to see it.
Regarding Web-enhanced and blended courses, I must say that I did not find anything new in the readings. I use web-enhanced material for all my classes all the time; I give interesting projects to my students with options for those who do not like to use technology and are not fond of it. I used to incorporate Wiki, Voicethread, Glogster and other fascinating tools in my F2F classes, but I got a lot of frustrated students who could not get a good grade in the project just because of glitches on the software or difficulties understanding them. I hear all the time that we are teaching digital native students; I feel that most of community college students are an exception to this. I have to say that a majority of my students do not feel comfortable using technology in the classes, not even posting on the Discussion board in Blackboard. This week, I had a student who did not get a grade in her composition because she did not post it right (she saved it as a draft and I did not see it). I wish the book would have covered more about blended courses; how they are conducted and more examples of it. I am glad Rachele DeMeo published her video of her own blended course on her posting this week, Merci Rachele!
I loved Cris Crissman’s introduction to this week’s video and how she ends.. Pedagogy first… capture that! Thank you Cris, your video was clear and easy to understand, just like a good photograph 🙂
Tags: blended courses, MOOC, POTCERT, week 19
March 24th, 2013 at 10:53 pm
Thanks for your encouragement, Maria. I’m enjoying learning to create videos so a rave review goes a long way.
When I read of the problems that you’d seen our supposedly “digital natives” experiencing, I thought of the “Mac Genius” in my grad class (seriously, as in Apple stores) who had fits learning Google Docs, VoiceThread, and other Web 2.0 tools. These tools are not always intuitive and experience with smart phones, Facebook, or even movie-editing doesn’t always transport.
So I really like Dave White metaphor of the digital visitor and digital resident — V&R, he calls it — and it’s more about learning on the Web than it is about tools — http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2012/jun/08/web-learning-teaching-digital-literacy
I hear you about the need for more models of blended learning in practice and was thrilled to see Rachele’s overview of her own. I remembered that Michael Horn of Christensen, Johnson, & Horn and Disrupting Class reputation went on to focus on blended learning. He shares a brief listing of several types here — http://www.itslearning.net/individual-teaching-the-six-models-of-blended-learning?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRokvq3IZKXonjHpfsX57eosWrHr08Yy0EZ5VunJEUWy24MFT9QhcOuuEwcWGog8yRhLFuWUbo5J9PI%3D
And would you believe there have been MOOCs on blended learning? I missed these but read about them on the University of Central Florida’s Blended Learning Kit site — http://blended.online.ucf.edu/ I see no news of future MOOCs but there are lots of resources and a self-paced course.
It seems at least once a week I hear about something extraordinary and pause to think that we really are living in the future. Do you know William Gibson’s great quote: “The future is already here. It’s just not evenly distributed”?
April 6th, 2013 at 7:13 pm
Thank you for the links and your comments! I will definitely explore all of them!
Laura