Zen, the Art of Metacognition & #MOOC Maintenance

Or more about Quality-Based Discrimination, Peer Assessment & Technology in Academic Matters, (Canadian) Journal of Higher Education. All are relevant to autonomous learning and other topics current on various mooc blogs and under discussion among participants. As the post progresses, I see it connect with New Faculty Majority (higher ed teaching, assessment), community (networked publics, informal learning), specific MOOC (Change11, Bon's digital identities) and personal networks /blogging concerns.


Steve Joordens, professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto Scarborough, writes... 

In 1974, Robert M. Pirsig wrote a book entitled “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”, within which he provided a philosophical argument for the primacy of quality. Quality is described as a metaphysical underpinning of, well, just about anything; an underpinning from which other characteristics can be derived. I read this book for the first time about 2 years ago, after I had become passionate about using technology to better support the development of meta-cognitive skills in students. I was completely amazed how well Pirsig’s conceptions fit with the sorts of assignments I had been promoting as powerful and much needed. In some sense, his depiction of the primacy of quality made explicit an assumption that was at the core of much of what I was doing.

Doomed or Lucky? Predicting the Future of the Internet Generation

According to Mindshift and the Pew Foundation's Future of the Internet V survey, there is still no consensus when it comes to the internet or predicting the future. Has there ever been? As the common expression about relationships goes, "it's complicated." Whatever, the results are relevant, each in its own way to the (more or less) varying MOOCs underway, hence the post even if not following any of the assignments. That's autonomous for you,

photo by Flickr

Looking into the proverbial crystal ball, a slew of technology experts weighed in on the Future of the Internet V survey conducted by Pew Research and Elon University, and came up with a predictably mixed scenario: It’s complicated.

Asked to consider the future of the Internet-connected world between now and 2020 and to choose from two statements, of the total 1,021 responses, 55% agreed with this optimistic view:

#mooc/s & me: what week is this anyway?

Discussion seems thin on the Program for Online Teaching's Facebook group. If discussion has moved to another location, I missed it. Group is where most of my current POT activity centers lately, posting links and comments. The same, to a lesser degree, seems true for the Change11 group. Facebook is convenient because I already check in to manage local (2), P&WPicnic and New Faculty Majority pages. Even so I do as much of that as possible by email and the Fb share button on my toolbar. 

I don't intend to title every CWL post, however infrequent, "catching up," even if the best way to describe them so far. Hence,  "#mooc/s & me." One problem (among, alas, others) surely lies in trying to address (and tag) too many moocs in a single post, an inevitable corollary to following too many moocs.  A workable solution may not be possible but still a learning experience either way ~ succeed or fail. 

   

This morning I am catching up on reading and comment on Program blogs but need to break away shortly for Saturday morning reminders on the community announcements blog, may something more fun on the other. Ever on the look out for economies of scale, I think about ways to combine mooc and community blogging. Such is the quest for a virtual Philosopher's Stone of blogging. 

POTcert's tools for online and hybrid course are interesting and teaching an enduring interest. Currently, neither is my primary focus. Social media, content curation and developing online community (and other) networks are, all related to and overlapping with tools and teaching. The more related self-paced study projects are on the back burner for now.  Here's one local project, Virtual Salt Missions Trail

Change11 ideas and concepts fit right into my emerging/evolving image of community networks ~ autonomous, overlapping, linked, distributed ~ as related. These are not class, course or event but include events, groups, and need to learn to survive, thrive. Too many silos though. The same applies to isolated, intermittently communicating clusters of adjunct faculty across the country. Stephen's latest post on Half an Hour struck me as relevant to flexible organizing for both. 

Posted via email from Mooking About

Observations about learning, knowledge and technology

Recent #MOOC & #PLE research from Rita Kop: publications on Massive Open Online Courses and Personal Learning Environments. 


Rita (ur-moocquette or mooc wonkette? Maybe both...) writes...

People interested in Massive Open Online Courses will probably be aware of the research by Helene Fournier and me on Personal Learning Environments and MOOCs. We carried out research in the MOOC PLENK2010 (The MOOC Personal Learning Environments Networks and Knowledge that was held in the fall of 2010). The data collected on this distributed course with 1641 participants has been massive as well. Its analysis has kept us and some fellow researchers busy over the past year. The research has resulted in a number of publications and I thought it might be useful to post links to all of our journal articles, conference papers and presentations that were published in relation to PLEs and MOOCs in one space. Each publication looks at the data from a different perspective, eg, requirements in a PLE, self-directed learning, learner support, creativity.

Read the rest at Observations about learning, knowledge and technology: Research publications on Massive Open Online Courses and Personal Learning Environments (and save the links)

'via Blog this'

Multi(ple): literacies, tasking, connecting, networking #MOOC/s

Would that be multimoocquing (or however spelled)? I favor qu for the hard c. Getting ahead of myself (we can do that here), I came across "Reframing Information Literacy as a Metaliteracy" in CMC1l readings for week. The article struck me as MOOC and Multiliteracies relevant even if it uses the word "collaboration" too often. Call it coollaporation and let it be, let it be ...