Octeto

Summary: 

Patrick McAndrew, professor at the UK’s Open University and author of the article “Learning from Open Design: Running a Learning Design MOOC”, published in the latest issue of eLearning Papers, talks to us about his experience with Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs).

 

Interest Area:  Higher Education Training & Work Learning & Society

I thought it would be helpful to actually, you know, learn a bit about where smartphones started, what they're doing right now, and where they're heading.

The post The Past, Present, And Potentially Amazing Future Of Smartphones appeared first on Edudemic.

Right on its new schedule (May and November) and full of awesome new features, Moodle 2.5 was released yesterday and is now available for download from Moodle.org. According to Martin Dougiamas in...

Leigh Blackall, May 15, 2013 Leigh Blackall suggests that the editing 'war' over MOOCs on Wikipedia is lamentably one-sided. "Who among us, that spend considerable time commenting on the commentary through our blogs, Slideshares, Youtubes and the like, take an hour out of each day to check and help improve the Wikipedia articles relating to our work?" This is a fair point, and I confess that I edit Wikipedia only occasionally (partly because Wikieditors have taken over, partly because it would seem self-serving, partly because I don't have the time). But Blackall makes the case, pointing to a number of Wikipedia articles related to the field and relating their sorry state of disrepair. "Remember," he writes, "MOOCs have become a manufactured  consent." [Link] [Comment]

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Whitney Burke, Huffington Post, May 15, 2013 Whitney Burke writes in Huffington Post about "a new approach to learning, connected learning." It's based "a fourth R: relevance." Burke writes, "Today 'relevance' means preparing all young people for a rapidly changing, interconnected world where learning transpires long after the school bell rings and creative and critical thinking skills are in constant demand." In practice, "connected learning "connects academics to a young person's interests and daily life and affords opportunities for the learner to draw rich social support from a tight-knit group of mentors, teachers, parents and peers." The approach has its own website and is fostered by the The Digital Media & Learning Research Hub. Here's a report describing the approach in detail. Readers will be forgiven if the report reads point for point like it's describing connectivism and networked learning as we practice it, though as I suggest here, "It's much more communal and participation-oriented than the approach I take." [Link] [Comment]

See it on Scoop.it, via Educación flexible y abierta

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Response to Intervention (RtI) can target each learner's needs when they need it as they need it.

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This is the second post in a series of four on instructional design for online courses. The goal of this series is to introduce a fresh, innovative approach to course design. Instructional design, also known as learning design, appears to … Continue reading →

Staring at a blank Word document can be downright terrifying. So here are some quick writing tips for students looking to get the mind ready to write.

The post 10 Quick Writing Tips For Students appeared first on Edudemic.

Jenzabar has released the newest version of its learning management system, Jenzabar eLearning (formerly eRacer), with synchronous collaboration tools and the ability to grade from within discussion forums.

Hobsons and Regent Education have formed a strategic partnership to align Regent's Student Needs Application Platform and Regent 8 with Hobsons' enrollment services solutions for online and non-traditional students.

Oracle has released new mobile features for the PeopleSoft Campus Solutions suite. The features let students use their mobile devices to view and manage class and grade information through a secure application.

Stephen Downes, MOOC Quality Project, May 14, 2013 In this contribution I address the question of assessing the quality of massive open online courses. The assessment of the quality of anything is fraught with difficulties, depending as it does on some commonly understood account of what would count as a good example of the thing, what factors constitute success, and how that success against that standard is to be measured. With massive open online courses, it is doubly more difficult, because of the lack of a common definition of the MOOC itself, and because of the implication of external factors in the actual perception and performance of the MOOC.

Moreover, it is to my mind far from clear that there is agreement regarding the purpose of a MOOC to begin with, and without such agreement discussions of quality are moot. Let me begin, then, with a statement describing what I take a MOOC to be. I will then address what I believe ought to be the purpose of a MOOC, the success factors involved in serving that purpose, the design features that impact success, and finally, questions regarding the measurement of those features.

This is a contribution to the MOOC Quality Project (which posted part 3, 'MOOC Success Factors, on the blog, with the final edited version intended for eventual publication somewhere, and possibly other sections on other blogs). [Link] [Comment]

Mississippi State University has adopted a new app to help students, faculty, and staff find available parking on campus.

Since school administrators are so critical to the success of the school district, it is important that they possess the leadership attributes needed to have a positive impact on the students and faculty members.

The post 3 Characteristics Of Outstanding School Administrators appeared first on Edudemic.

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Nathan Heller, The New Yorker, May 14, 2013 Don't miss this exploration of MOOCs and elite schools. But note well, this (and not education) is what the elite universities sell: "At twenty, at Dartmouth, maybe, you’ re sitting in a dormitory room at 1 A.M. sharing Chinese food with two kids wearing flip-flops and Target jeans; twenty-five years later, one of those kids is running a multibillion-dollar tech company and the other is chairing a Senate subcommittee. Access to 'é lite education' may be more about access to the é lites than about access to the classroom teaching." So why are they offering MOOCs? To make sure nobody else sells what they're selling. And - perhaps - to prevent the wave of open learning reform from striking their sacred shores and breaching their hallowed halls. [Link] [Comment]

The whole debate over Google Glass is a bit of a puzzle. There is certainly plenty of coverage of the initial limited public trails. The tech press is generally in raptures, perhaps because they have at last an innovative new toy to play with (or at least to dream of playing with).

The popular press has run a series of rather contrived stories about how Glass can give you headahes, is dangerous for drivers, is a threat to privacy and how users are showing no respect to others etc. etc. Oh, and someone comes up with an unsupported (and probably non working) plug in that takes a photo when you wink and gets aches of coverage.

What there seems to be no discussion of is the potential for serious applications for Glass. We are looking hard at the possibilities of wearable computers for vocational education and training. We haven’t got our hands on a prototype from Google (we aren’t rich or famous enough). But there are other manufacturers who have already released production versions of glasses with similar if more limited functionality and we hope to be trying these out at Bau ABC, a construction industry training centre in North Germany. I am especially interested in the potential for informal learning.

And there are a whole series of research groups looking at the potential of Glass like products in the medical field.

It would be nice to think that Google would be working with such research. But instead its policy of releasing a number to “Glass Explorers” who pay 1500 dollars each for the privilege looks more like a publicity stunt than any serious attempt at research.

 

A special issue of the online journal eLearning Papers has been released entitled MOOCs and beyond. Editors Yishay Mor and Tapio Koshkinen say the issue brings together in-depth research and examples from the field to generate debate within this emerging research area.

They continue: “Many of us seem to believe that MOOCs are finally delivering some of the technology-enabled change in education that we have been waiting nearly two decades for.

This issue aims to shed light on the way MOOCs affect education institutions and learners. Which teaching and learning strategies can be used to improve the MOOC learning experience? How do MOOCs fit into today’s pedagogical landscape; and could they provide a viable model for developing countries?

We must also look closely at their potential impact on education structures. With the expansion of xMOOC platforms connected to different university networks—like Coursera, Udacity, edX, or the newly launched European Futurelearn—a central question is: what is their role in the education system and especially in higher education?”