130110 Open Opportunities

3382894065_fff137f070_zIt has been interesting to note the New Year flurry of activity around open learning opportunities.
Stephen Downes has been sharing some of the developments in OLDaily as has John Mak.
Stephen’s links took me to David Wiley’s Introduction to Openness in Education, the 2013 Version. From there I went to the Canvas host for this year’s course. The list of modules available is here. I liked David’s analogy of the course as a campfire (notwithstanding my sensitivity to fire behaviour at this time of the year in Australia):

… the most important function of both a great campfire and a great course is the manner in which they draw people together. A good campfire is a thing around which storytelling, singing, and other social interactions happen. The same is true for the best courses – they draw people into arguments, explorations, discussions, relationships, and even friendships.

David outlines the Course Technology Requirements that include: a blog, Twitter, Delicious, YouTube, and Flickr.  These technology tools are an important component of the course’s commitment to learning artifacts. (David’s link to Terry Anderson’s post Connectifying your course sent me off on another path and the contemplation of open artifact persistence and networking opportunity.)
DW Tweet
David’s course is one of a number of courses running at the moment. Two posts by Nancy White led me to think more about open communities, how they engage and the indicators of a vibrant community. (Note Nancy’s Comment on my post and her link to a new post.)
MOOc MOOCI learned of this week’s MOOC MOOC via Stephen and John. This course is being hosted on Canvas too. The facilitators Sean Michael Morris and Jesse Stommel point out that:

In this week-long experimental online course, we’ll be investigating exactly what it means to participate in, create, and even envision a MOOC (massive open online course). We’ll be thinking about the nature of digital learning and where it’s leading us. We’ll be questioning what a MOOC is, how useful this educational format can be, and the new and innovative opportunities toward which it points.

I arrived late for this course and am starting to read resources and follow conversation threads. I happened upon Bonnie Stewart’s post Education for a Digital Age and thought it a great link between the two Canvas courses. I admire transparent accounts of learning and thought Bonnie’s post was a great insight into the fallible production of learning artifacts.
As I was writing this post I was monitoring the #moocmooc traffic and enjoyed discovering Dale Ireland’s views on accessibility.
DI
Another course running at the moment is Learning Design for a 21st Century Curriculum. The course (#oldsmooc) “has been funded by JISC as part of a benefits realisation programme and is intended to build on the success of the Open University Learning Design Initiative (OULDI) and other JISC funded curriculum design and delivery projects”. I was interested to read Jenny Mackness’s views on this MOOC.
A fourth course I will be monitoring is from Germany. It is a MOOC Maker course (#mmc13). I am hopeful that the pre-Internet German I learned in the late 1960s can help me adapt to a new vocabulary.
MMC
It is going to be a busy month! I will be checking the Connectivist MOOC listings too. I am hopeful that I can experience these MOOCs to help with my own development of modest small open online courses in 2013.
I will be following the advice of a leading connectivist thinker, Dr Seuss:
Seuss

Photo Credit

Skyfire 21 (Lachlan Rogers, CC BY-SA 2.0)

4 COMMENTS

    • Hello, Nancy. Thanks for the new link. I thought my activity was minimal compared to yours!
      I am looking to develop a Drupal resource in 2013 so I hope we can correspond about your experiences.
      Happy New Year

  1. Thanks for the link, Keith…like Nancy, i’m amazed at all your MOOCing and will look forward to thoughts and comparisons and what value you’re finding in each.
    The fallible production of learning artifacts, indeed…others make it look easy, but for me, video seems to be a Sisyphean effort. it’ll come. 🙂

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