Tag Archives: MOOC

#oldsmooc: Cat’s & Wet Feet

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Occasionally I come across interesting examples of technology use, learning and unlearning. In this case the main protagonist is my cat, Wally.

He thinks he’s pretty smart.
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Image source: Penny Bentley

Wally has a love/hate relationship with water. He sits beside it, watches it and sniffs it whenever her can. If he touches or steps onto something wet he goes crazy, shaking and licking his paw until all signs of water are gone.

Along comes the iPad, with Pocket Pond installed, Wally is in heaven. Water everywhere, watery noises, fish and even chirping birds. Strange thing is, when he touches the iPad with his paw he still shakes it like crazy.

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Image: iPad screenshot of Pocket Pond, Penny Bentley

I’d like to explore what’s happening here in a little more depth before #oldsmooc is over. How many learners out there are still “shaking their feet” when using these brilliant new tools of discovery?

I’ve sort of got my head around Week 3 which focussed on IDEATE…ideas for my project are now falling into place. Yes, if I can persuade a couple of unwilling academics to come on board, I think I know what I’ll be doing with them. It’s an online course meant to lead them calmly from e-mail to MOOC. Turning academics into MOOCaholics. Sorting out the minor points of putting it into practice will occur in the weeks to come.

I’ve sketched my visualisations, rather than use tables and lists. Since I’m designing the course to be online and as mobile as possible, I’ve used my iPad and iPhone for most of the planning stages so far. I’ve also played with a number of tools to enable this process.
So, the Learning Design of my #moocskills Project has been imagined & roughly mapped out, using some new tools and activities.

Now comes the Big Plan…how am I going to pull it all together and, am I doing this process in a similar way to all other #oldsmoocers putting their projects together?
That’s right, it doesn’t matter what out projects are about but, are we using the same “recepie” to put them together? Who knows, I wish there was more chatter on Facebook and Twitter. When I find out, watch this space, you may find a universal code for Learning Design.

#oldsmooc: asleep at the wheel of a a pdf

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Learning Designers can’t do it all. Creating beautiful digital work, with an underlying narrative that links to age specific content, is a specialised field.
I’d like to share with you the best example I’ve come across.  Don’t stress about the mathematics, see if you can understand the message.
Let this video load, enlarge it to fill your screen, turn the sound up full blast, sit back and let it wash all over you.

Source: Cristóbal Vila

Every time I see this video I’m affected by it’s beauty and simplicity of message, from the Fibonacci Sequence to nautilus shells to sunflowers to dragonflies, relationships exist between mathematics and the natural world.

Cristóbal Vila’s message gives students a context in which to make sense of number patterns and geometry.

This exercise from a Year 7 textbook doesn’t.

patterns

The mathematics covered in Nature by Numbers ranges from simple to complex, something for everyone. It’s precise and works beautifully with music and 3D animation…how can all of that fall into the job description of a Learning Designer?

So, why am I carrying on about maths and number patterns?

Professor Grainne Conole initiated my thoughts after posting this excellent question during our Week 3 wrap up….

What is the relationship between precision and creativity in learning design?

I stopped, paused and read the recommended reference, all 17 pages in pdf format.

Beauty and Precision: Weaving Complex
Educational Technology Projects with Visual
Instructional Design Languages

 Micheal Derntl et al.

Ever had an experience of driving somewhere, of being aware when familiar places flash past, you know you are heading in the right direction but don’t remember the journey when you got there? I need to give this reference another chance, but heavy text and confusing diagrams just don’t do it for me. It’s content, however, I don’t want to let go.

Weaving this video into a discussion around beauty, precision, instructional design, learning design and education still leaves me with a messy vision of what we are trying to achieve in the #oldsmooc.

That’s great, suits me just fine, we still have 6 weeks to get it sorted.

Addendum: don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating the removal of all pdf files containing academically rigorous content from the online courses we design. Far from it, lets push the boundaries of critical thinking…but please, don’t slap a course together with a truckload of content, available only in written form. Stimulate our senses with art, fill us with joy as we discover things we’ve never seen before and leverage the power of technology to take us beyond the walls of our institutions.

My advice…sign up for a diigo account and file those pdf’s away for future reference.

#oldsmooc Growth in the Answer Garden

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Emerging from the answer garden are shoots, some bigger than others. It’s beginning to reveal some clues about people’s perceptions of the meaning of Learning Design.

In my quest for enlightenment, I’ll re “Wordle” at the end of Weeks 6 and 9.

answergarden olds week 3

The size of each word reflects the frequency of answers.

Would you agree with the emphasis placed on these larger words in the context of looking for a definition of Learning Design?

 

#oldsmooc MOOC or COOP?

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Earlier today I made this comment on the blog post of an OLDS MOOC participant.

“The serendipitous nature of connected learning has quickly led me to a like minded learner. Many thanks for considering my personal detour part of your learning experience in this MOOC. Our online identity should reflect our personality, this doesn’t mean compromising our privacy. I wonder, is that an ingredient in the learning design process?”

My comment arises out of Helen Crump’s post that you can read here.

holiday

Image by Penny Bentley, New South Wales, Australia

Helen and I shared a brief exchange on Twitter, about camping, during the OLDS MOOC Google Hangout. Sharing a tiny snippet of our authentic selves gave me a sense of connectedness with someone on the MOOC journey.

This week I wasn’t the only one overcoming obstacles to finding a way around Cloudworks, the online platform used to host our artefacts, reflections and conversations during this MOOC. It was fine in the end, I’m learning and contributing to Education Research, I’m not going to relinquish this unique opportunity.

So, what were this weeks defined learning outcomes? I need to give them some thought before applying for my first “badge”.

  • explore a variety of definitions of learning design
  • initiate my own learning/curriculum design project
  • define learning design, as a field of research and practice
  • identify some of the grand challenges of using a learning design approach to the design of learning in the 21st Century
  • identify specific topics of interest for further exploration

I’m a Secondary Maths and Science Teacher. My professional training didn’t include design theory, it’s just understood and expected that you will go out there and make the learning better.

At this early stage my understanding of the definition of Learning Design is limited. Others are miles ahead, it’s their area of expertise.

What I have achieved is finding several like minded participants to work on a project with. Converting classroom teaching into online webinars is our plan. Topics for further exploration are sure to arise as time progresses.

I’ll end it here by saying this MOOC seems like a COOP, a Community Open Online Project.