I was playing the videos from Week 5 of the Video Games and Learning MOOC on Coursera in the background while doing some paperwork that was simple enough that I could divide my attention. Then I heard Constance Steinkuehler's voice say something that hit me so hard I had to rewind and listen to it again.
This is not verbatim, but the gist is this:
We need to stop thinking of games as a way to accomplish our educational goals, and start thinking of education as a way to accomplish their goals.
If reading, researching, working math, whatever, if kids see it as a way to be able to do what they want to do, then they'll put in the extra effort to do it. I don't mean "finish your homework before you can play video games". But they will read well above their grade level (according to Steinkuehler) if the information they are reading will help them play better. I bet you'd find something similar when it comes to figuring out player stats (math).
Why don't kids work hard to do math problems in a book? Why don't they make an effort to comprehend what they're reading? Because they don't see the point. They don't care. Grades are not enough to motivate kids (see the Learning Beyond Letter Grades MOOC).
Admittedly, sometimes students are going to have to learn things that they don't want to learn or don't see an application for. We all do. That's life. But when choice is possible, give students some choice. When it's not, help them see an application, find a way to connect, to care. They may not care how long it takes a train leaving Chicago to pass another train coming from California, but they may very well care how long it takes to get to The Blasted Lands from Elwynn Forest.
I'm getting started on the E-Learning and Digital Cutures MOOC being offered by the University of Edinburgh on Coursera. I really need to reign in my MOOCs because I'm going to start the second Quality Matters course this week, and since I paid $350 to take that training, it gets priority! But this one has such great ratings, I'm going to try and participate as much as I can.
I've kind of let the Learning Beyond Letter Grades MOOC go, as far as submitting assignments. I'm still going to tune in to the live webinars because they are interesting, but I just can't devote the time to doing the assignments right now.
I'm keeping up with the Future of Storytelling and Video Games and Learning because they take very little time each week and are so wonderfully organized and presented.
I really want to keep up with Science & Cooking, but it requires a lot of work, so we'll have to see. But it's the course I know the least about and most want to learn, so I'm going to try.
I need to remember that I am taking these courses because I want to, and that they were free, and it's ok if I don't finish them all. But I'm such a perfectionist, it's hard to let go!
I finished the Badges: New Currency for Professional Development MOOC. It was fantastic! Developing a badge system is more involved than I expected, but Mozilla is really working to make it easy.
Although the live sessions are over, the MOOC is still available and you can view recordings of the sessions. The community is still alive and well on Twitter and Google+, and you can still work on and earn badges for completing Challenge assignments in the course.
I have completed all of my Challenges! If you would like to see my final project, you can see it here: Beth's final project
Science & Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science
I signed up for this course because I love cooking, I want to get better at it, and I thought that understanding some of the science behind it would help me improve. But, wow, was I unprepared for the amount of chemistry! I haven't had chemistry since 1985 and I didn't do that well in it then. But, I don't quit easily and I'm sticking with it!
The first lab assignment was to calibrate our ovens by seeing at what temperature sugar melts. Sugar should melt at 366, but I had to crank my oven up to 390 to get it to melt! I'm not sure that's enough proof for me to adjust my cooking temperature, but it may be enough to have me go buy an oven thermometer to verify the sugar test.
So, I signed up for a MOOC called Video Games and Learning on coursera.org. I almost dropped it because, lets face it, I'm taking way too many MOOCs right now! But I read something about it, where someone was saying it could be the best MOOC coursera has offered, so I decided to give the first week a try.
WOW! It is very cool, very fun (I mean, where else do you get homework of playing a video game?), and informative.
Ok, I'm keeping this one.
Our first assignment was to play a video game we had never played before for at least 30 minutes, preferably in a genre we don't normally play, and then create a review (less than 60 seconds!) looking at how the game structured learning. It was really hard to stay under a minute! (I went over a few seconds)
Want to see my video? It's here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lYl53vPEvM
I've been hearing the term PLN for a few years now. I kind of thought I knew what they were, but I didn't really know how to go about getting one. I thought it was like a mailing list or a club or that somehow I had to have a list or a space where everyone in my PLN congregated.
But I've come to learn more about PLNs and they're not that structured. It's really just a fancy term for "making connections with other people who share your interests and learning from each other". It doesn't really matter where you make contact, and they don't all have to be in the same place.
Wow! I have a PLN and didn't even realize it! I like to attend webinars and I make note of the Twitter handles of the presenters and other attendees (if they share -- and if they don't, they're not good candidates for a PLN anyway!). I follow hashtags, like #edtech, and I see who makes interesting and informative posts and follow them.
I started retweeting some of their posts, adding my own comment sometimes, and people started following me!
So there it is. It's not something complex or confusing, and it's easy to start. So little risk, and so much to gain.
I've been hearing about PLNs (Personal Learning Networks) for a while, but really struggled with how to form one. How do I find other people who share my interests and that are willing to talk to me?
I think I've been kind of building one without realizing it was what I was doing, but I wanted to become a little more systematic about it.
And then I heard about Connected Educator Month. There are several sites with activities to help you connect with others and to build your PLN. It seems that a lot of activities are focused on K-12, but there's enough out there for us postsecondary folks that I think I can benefit.
I've started an Annotary folder to collect websites and articles related to my connected educators and PLN exploration this month. Feel free to contribute!
If you're interested in getting involved with Connected Educator Month, I recommend starting with Connected Educators. I'll be writing some more about my activities and experiences during October.
MOOCs are kind of like an all-you-can-eat buffet. If you put something on your plate and you don't like it, you don't have to eat it or feel like you've wasted your money.
I was really excited about Google's Introduction to Web Accessibility. Although I already know a lot about accessibility, it promised to teach about ARIA and some of the coding tricks, which is an area I need to learn more about.
(Note: There was a heated discussion about calling the course "Introduction to Web Accessibility" when it focused only on accessibility for those with vision loss, but I won't beat that poor horse again here.)
I learned a lot in there, at least for the first half or so. But as I got further into the course, I became frustrated because the coding became more complex, and they did not provide examples of the syntax, or show you what the finished code should look like (after you tried it, of course!). It also required you to edit some JavaScript, which I am very much a novice with. I found myself getting very frustrated with it, and it's just not worth it.
While I learned tons and I don't regret starting it, I think it would be better suited to someone who has more coding experience, especially in JavaScript, than I do. I'm not turned off, if anything it makes me want to go learn more about ARIA, but perhaps in a more basic course.
I will say, however, that they are not providing any sort of certificate, badge, or any other verification that you completed the course. If they were, I would probably stick with it. And I know I should just learn it for my own benefit, but having something I can put in my portfolio would have been nice, a recognition of my struggle through the content!
I'm leaving this food on my plate, and going back to the buffet to see what else grabs my attention.
I'm really enjoying the Badges:New Currency for Professional Credentials MOOC that I'm taking through coursesites.com. It's sponsored by WCET, Mozilla, Blackboard and Sage Road Solutions. I'm not sure how to give you a link to the course, since I access it through my coursesites account, but you can follow the conversation on Twitter by looking for #openbadgesmooc.
There are live seminars every Monday and so far they have been great. I thought I understood badges, but there is so much more to them, especially the Open Badges.
There are activities, called Challenges, each week for which you can earn, you guessed it, badges! But the activities also give you a chance to apply what we've been talking about in the webnars and discussion boards.
I just submitted the first challenge. I'm a little late with it, but fortunately, there's no deadlines! Here is the description of the first Challenge:
Challenge Assignment 1: Define a Current Ecosystem
At a basic level, we consider the ecosystem of three principal sets of stakeholders:
Learning Providers
Job Seekers
Employers
Traditionally, we have viewed these three principal sets of stakeholders as having a fairly simplistic, linear relationship: Traditional higher education institutions and other types of learning providers (e.g., trade schools) impart knowledge and skills to learners and issue credentials. Learners cum job seekers take their credentials to employers, who use job seekers’ transcripts and other work/life experiences to ascertain whether job seekers are suitable for employment.
Facilitating change begins with articulating where we are and what problems need solutions. Are employers getting the information they need, at the right level of specificity, to make good hiring decisions? Do current linear models (learning provider => job seeker => employer) provide good through-put? Are job seekers getting the value they need out of their education investments?
Consider an industry or community of practice where you anticipate that badges could have a positive impact.
Describe the ecosystem of this industry or community and provide an overview of how it currently works.
Describe the roles of the primary stakeholders in this ecosystem: learning providers, job seekers, and employers.
Create personas/archetypes that represent each of the stakeholders.
Write one or more “before badges” user stories that articulate specific problems or areas needing improvement in this ecosystem.
Learning Objectives:
Define the core elements of the badges ecosystem as it applies to your industry, discipline, or community of practice.
Identify the primary stakeholders of the badges ecosystem is it applies to your industry, discipline, or community of practice, and the problems that badges might help address.
Recognize the value of “open” vs. “proprietary” within the greater badges ecosystem.
You have to score 10/15 on your Challenge in order to earn the badge, but you do get to redo it if you don't score high enough.
Here is my submission for the first Challenge. Let me know what you think!
I have decided not to continue with the How To Teach Online MOOC. And it's kind of funny because I am stopping because of so many things I learned from them about how NOT to teach online.
I'm writing about my reasons for stopping not to whine, but to share the problems hoping they will benefit anyone wanting to offer an online course.
#1 - Lack of organization
I'm not saying that every online course has to use an LMS. But LMSs do provide structure. There is no "landing" page for this course that gives you the overview and directs you to the different components. It's a blog, and not just a blog for the instructor, but one that any participant can post to. So when you go to the URL, you see the most recent posts, but no guidance to the course.
#2 - Registration Information
I could not find information on the site as to how to officially register for the course. In order to post to the blog or receive the verification for completing the course, you must register. Clearly, some participants found it, but I still haven't. (Edited to add: I found out that you cannot register once the class started. This is fine, but needs to be communicated.)
#3 - Overload of information
Their argument is that the Internet has way too much information for us to digest, so learning what to pay attention to and what not to is a skill we need to develop. So there are hours of videos and live webinars each week for participants to choose from. But it is overwhelming. Even the introductory video on how to blog is an hour! A better design would present a shorter list of essential information, and then have the rest marked as enhancement options if you want more information. Also, include a mixture of formats, not just videos (which aren't captioned).
#4 - Overwhelming number of participants
Yes, I know what MOOC stands for and that there are often thousands of participants. But they are often subdivided in some way so that when you go to a discussion board, you are not bombarded with thousands of unorganized posts. You are able to join a group that has a similar interest, or lives in your region, or something. Not to mention the blog format of the discussions is not the most conducive.
#5 - Lack of responsiveness
I have not received responses to repeated requests for help and information. I have received some responses, but they did not address my questions. Even if you had thousands of participants, you need to have a way for participants to get technical support, the general rule being within 24 hours. (Edited to add that I finally did receive answers to my questions, days later.)
Now for the good stuff...
That being said, much of the information offered is very good, and it's clear they put a lot of time into gathering and creating useful information. Unfortunately, it falls down in the presentation. If you don't care about interacting with other participants, getting the completion certificate, and you're not Deaf, I encourage you to go check out their videos.
I'm taking a MOOC from Google called Introduction to Web Accessibility. Although I know a lot about web accessibility, this is on a level I don't know that much about, getting into the code, HTML5 and ARIA. I'm really excited!
The course doesn't technically start until next week (at least that when Google folks will be around to help and answer questions) but you can go ahead and see the Unit 1 information and activities.
To get started, I downloaded ChromVox and Accessibility DeveloperTools into my Chrome browser. (Of course it's centered around Chrome, it's a Google course!) Then I used them to take a look at my own website, bethcase.com. I built it using Drupal and have not paid special attention to the accessibility. I'm still learning how to customize Drupal to do what I want. So I was a little scared to see how it did...
It actually did better than I expected! Using ChromeVox, it read everything, except for the picture, since there was no AltText provided (and yes, I do know better than that!). It also wasn't clear that there are two columns, or a way to skip the navigation. But still, not too bad.
Using the Accessibility Developer Tools, there were 5 errors. One was about the AltText (ok, ok! I'll go fix it!) but I have no idea what the others mean, or how to fix them. Good thing I'm taking this course!
On a personal side note, this course is not offering a badge, certificate of completion, or anything to recognize that you participated and completed the course. Of course, knowledge should be it's own reward, but it would be really nice to have something I could put on my website as evidence of my efforts.
Me in a nutshell -- I'm an Instructional Technologist for a community college system. I oversee the quality assurance for some of our online courses. I am also working on my dissertation in Instructional Technology, with an interest in adult online learning.
So you might think that I wouldn't need a course in How to Teach Online. But I like to see what others have to say, I always learn something new I can pass on, or that will help me in my own work. And I hope that I can share some of my own knowledge and experience.
I think one of the challenges of this MOOC is going to be keeping from being overwhelmed. They admit that they are providing many more materials than anyone can possibly read/watch/listen to. And there are so many participants, there's no way that I can possibly read everyone's blogs and posts. I think it might be easier if the participants were subdivided, maybe by industry (K-12, higher ed, corporate, military, etc.). Although I tend to be very participatory, the number of posts are already overwhelming.
The writing prompt asks us to describe our best and worst teacher. Although I've had a lot of good teachers, the one that stands out is Mr. Purcell, my senior year high school Calculus teacher. He treated us like college students, not high school students. He had high expectations, he didn't hold our hands, expecting us to take responsibility for our own learning, but he was there for us before and after school every day for help when we needed it. More than anyone else, he prepared me for college.
And while I've also had a number of "less ideal" teachers, one sticks out and I will not give his name. But it was an online class and his instructions were vague and confusing. I once asked him for more detail and he said that he left it vague so we had more freedom in how to do the assignment. Yet we scored poorly if we didn't meet his hidden expectations. Feedback on projects was vague and unhelpful, so you didn't know how to improve. And once we got so far behind that our midterm was to write a paper on everything we hadn't had time to cover yet. There are many more examples, but this post is long enough already!
We're asked to come up with 4 "dos" and 4 "do nots", but I always prefer to phrase things positively, so here is my list of "dos".
DO
Have high (but realistic) expectations
Provide clear expectations
Provide detailed, meaningful, and timely feedback
Be there to provide help and support as needed
Create the whole course in advance, but be flexible
Provide clear navigation through the course
Use multiple ways of presenting content and assessing knowledge
Align objectives, content and assessments
Basically, if I had to drill it down to one word, I would say communication. Good, clear, frequent, detailed, helpful and supportive communication.
I'm a little behind on this MOOC, which is not surprising given how many others I'm involved with, not to mention my other responsibilities. You'd think I would already know this topic well, since I'm working on my doctorate in Instructional Technology, but I'm always curious to see how others teach it. I always learn something, see something from a different perspective, find something I can pass on.
This course asks us to do create things called "sensemaking artifacts". I've never heard about this before, but I'm intrigued. See, I told you I learn something even from courses in my discipline! The basic idea is that it's something you create, like a blog post, video, podcast, whatever, that shows how you came to understand something, put two ideas together, connect things through your own understanding. Then you share it with others. And the idea is that they learn from you, they comment, critique, contribute, and through that interaction, your knowledge and understanding, as well as theirs, grows and deepens.
I'm really fascinated by this, and partially fear that I'm late to the game, that this is something everyone knows about except me! I'm creating a course right now where I am requiring a reflection journal, something to help students do some self-reflection on the course, what they've learned, where they see they still need to develop, etc. I'm wondering if I should make them do sensemaking artifacts instead. It's a little late in the development process, and I'm still too new to the concept, to incorporate it this time, I think. But there is great potential and changes can always be made next semester!
This was supposed to be my introductory blog, to help my classmates get to know me better. But I think this is long enough for one entry. I'll introduce myself next time.
baratheonpilled
discoholicmusic
yousharknotpass
turnnoffyourmind
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