#EDCMOOC sounds like SOLE to me

"What is the future of learning?"  This question was posed recently by Sugata Mitra in the TED talk  "Build a School in the Cloud." Sugata Mitra supposes "Could it be that we don't need to go to school at all? Could it

http://www.ted.com/pages/sole_challenge#download

be that at the point in time you need to know something you could find out in two minutes?"
I listened to this TED talk after completing the #EDCMOOC, "eLearning & Digital Cultures." During this experience it became clear to me the MOOCers direct their own learning.  This is very similar to what Sugata Mitra is proposing.
He says "Learning is the product of educational self organization. If you allow the educational process to self organize, learning emerges. It's not about making learning happen it's about letting it happen." This last phrase caused me to remember how one of the EDCMOOC teachers referred to the MOOC.  He called it "A Happening." The teachers in the MOOC truly did what Mitra is suggesting here.  "The teacher sets the process in motion and then stands back and watches in awe as learning happens." His formula is broadband, collaboration and encouragement.  This is exactly what I found in the MOOC Mitra refers to this as Self-Organized Learning Environments (SOLE).  If you are interested in taking part in his research project check out the SOLE Toolkit.

TLT sMOOChers talk about #EDCMOOC

TLT March 8th Conversation with Amy Woodgate

Below are the questions that were raised during the March 8th conversation with Amy Woodgate. Amy will return on April 12th. The conversation will continue. You can join in. Register for the event here.

Why is synchronous important?
How important is the power of voice and presence? I found the Google Hangouts in the EDCMOOC particularly refreshing, too. Do you think it was because  it was one of the few times we , as students, were able to connect with the teachers? How many attendees participated in the edcmooc hangout?  How many participants typically participate in the synchronous components of a MOOC?

What is the teacher role in a MOOC?
Although the multiple data streams from discussion boards, forums, Twitters, etc showed a very
energetic environment, I think the role of the teachers' should be explored and looked into....

How did you co-create these MOOCs?
What kind of (organisational) culture/attitude within UniEdinburgh - bottom-up/top-down, had you jumped on it and approached Coursera/did they approach you? Were there any particular champions within U Edinburgh who had imagineered UE MOOCs and how long had preparations begun prior to June 2012 sign-up? Did Coursera provide any assistance developing the courses? Do you think you got lucky with the community that formed around edcmooc? I have not experienced this with other moocs... there seemed to be some very enthusiastic students taking part who took it upon themselves to create their own spaces and build communities? I heard the MOOC on eLearning and Digital Culture deviated from the standard video lecture as the main form of delivery. Can you elaborate on the decisions that led to this? what was the reasoning behind the deviation from Coursera's standard  method of video as the main content delivery?

Where/how were the MOOCs marketed?

I would like to discuss the financial aspects of course delivery, etc. Were the faculty compensated similarly to what their participation would have been for a traditional F2F course? How much did the course cost and did student income pay for it? What % of the students do you expect will pay in the future?

How do we to get other groups, pre-college educated feel comfortable to jump in? What are the MOOC naysayers saying? What are you seeing from the exit surveys? What is the overlap between those faculty threatened by MOOCs and those threatened by online education more generally?

What are your thoughts on best MOOC practices?

MOOCers: how much time did you spend on the MOOC each week?

What is your take on assessments in the MOOC?

Can online resources like TLT be a MOOC? Could you build a MOOC around an interactive ebook that people pay for?

Did any of the "traditional" courses that were run "simultaneously" on same topic as a MOOC, did anyone observe any notable changes?  improvements, deficits in the "traditional" version as a consequence of the MOOC happening? I would love to hear more about how the MOOC changed your experience Amy as a student?

#EDCMOOC - sMOOChers Debrief with Amy Woodgate

TLT FridayLive!
sMOOChers Debrief with Amy Woodgate
March 8, 2013  2:00-3:00 pm Eastern Time - free to all.

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Amy Woodgate, University of Edinburgh MOOC project director, joins "sMOOChers" who participated in THE INTENTIONALLY EXPERIMENTAL #EDCMOOC "eLearning and Digital Cultures," https://www.coursera.org/course/edc.  They will discuss their experiences, lessons learned, recommendations, druthers, things to avoid.   This is one of six MOOCs being offered by the University of Edinburgh.  Edinburgh was offering this "course" both as a MOOC and as a more traditional course simultaneously, so Amy can also compare and contrast the two approaches and how they might fit together.  We will also explore ways in which faculty  can integrate MOOCs (entirely or by selecting modules)  hosted by other colleges and universities in their own undergraduate courses. For the last 15 minutes, participants will be invited to discuss emerging plans for the TLT Group to offer a MOOC-ish experience based on John Sener's recent book "Seven Futures of American Education:  Improving Teaching and Learningin a Screen Captured World."

The MOOC has concluded but the learning continues. I want to share some digital artifacts created by my VoiceThread friends.  If you explore these examples you will see amazing creative examples using different technologies

• Keeley Sorokti: EDMC MOOC: A Maiden Voyage
• Ligia Toutant: Transhuman Technologies and Disability
• Marianne  W. Preisler: Draft of Artifact
• Fran Monaghan: Final Assignment
• Felicia Sullivan: Connecting to a learning community through technology
• Rick Bartlett: Human Worth #EDCMOOC
• Virginia Travato: The informationocean

Some additional resources collected along the way:
#EDCMOOC "Invisible threads are the strongest ties." Check out this SlideRocket presentation!  I love it!!!!... Made by Ary Aranguiz @trending teacher. Ary ends the presentation with this quote "We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and those fibers as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects." Herman Melville

A great summary of the EDCMOOC experience by one of the instructors, Sian  Bayne. The VoiceThread that emerged organically that I have been participating in was featured. That's pretty cool. Sian's blog post Shoring the fragments of #EDCMOOC

#EDCMOOC, Being "real" in a cyberspace environment

SOME of what I am taking away from the e-Learning and Digital Cultures MOOC.

Sadly I missed the deadline for submitting. Rats! I so want the experience of critiquing to work of my fellow students.  I am happy that I can view their artifacts as I know there is much to be learned.