Learning Conversations - Latest Comments

In response to: Creating a new theme for Moodle 2.0

2014-06-17T01:30:39Z

great!
You saved me.
Thanks!
http://palinfocom.net/moodle-theme-development

In response to: Questions on online learning in the financial sector

2014-04-15T00:12:36Z

Tools like WebEx, adobe connect, RHUB, gotomeeting etc. are used for conducting online trainings and business meetings. They provide screen sharing capabilities, voice capabilities, wherein, without any time or location barrier one can attend the sessions.

In response to: Membership organisations - are they past their sell-by date?

2014-04-09T07:57:27Z

Hi, great questions to generate discussions. Well positioned. I would like to add that in my experience as a vendor of an App Membership Connect that allows membership bodies to distribute, track and run analytics on any content (PDF, DOC, Videos), I found that membership bodies are stuck in the 80’s and all they can provide to their members is an annual networking event, a paper base catalogue every quarter and the false promise of a CPD certification to promote professionalism among their members. Many of them simply ignore or reject the 2014 & beyond technologies available to them in order to create the “community” feeling that would allow members to benefit from freely exchanging information. That is what we aim to address with Membership Connect once we launch it in the near future.

In response to: Review: Testlink - an open source test management system

2014-03-21T02:50:50Z

Hi,
Can you plz tell me if testlink is a right tool if I need to manage more than 6000 test cases. Can I manage requirements for every iterations, can I create traceability matrix to map test cases to requirements?

In response to: Using Yammer

2014-01-31T08:26:19Z

How to I logout of Yammer?
I’ve wasted ages wandering through my profil, no help button, no setting button.
It’s not obvious to me.

In response to: White papers, articles and bare-faced adverts

2014-01-30T21:17:20Z

Hey Mark, here’s my short history of spam: http://wp.me/pf1R0-M2 :0)

In response to: Sustainable open education

2014-01-26T18:46:02Z

Mark,

You provide a very thoughtful piece on MOOCs and their place in the educational landscape (or wheel or pie or puzzle - whatever grand scheme analogy works for you). I’m fairly new to contemplating these (I started teaching hybrids about three years ago and online-exclusive courses last summer), but I have been thrust into an arena in which sussing out key pieces of “good educational prospects” is important for me, my students, and my employers. That said, I attended Focus on Teaching and Technology: A Regional Conference last fall, at which MOOCs were a persistent buzz topic; I have worked with a fairly new LMS which emphasizes social networking and has started hosting MOOCs (CourseNetworking, from one of the creates of Angel); and, I’ve been reading more on MOOCs.

All of this brings me to say this “hot topic” should be embraced without fear. Initially, I understood concerns in higher education as pertain to a solid business model, but I frankly think we’re approaching this the wrong way. From what I can tell, there are three means to maximize the value of this “invention”: (1) public campaigns (informational courses to help with health campaigns and “best practices” in informal items [think of caring for babies, defensive driving, etc]), (2) community course channels that may stimulate further desire for formal education (I think not of a replacement for community colleges nor universities but of items I used to see offered through local “free universities” - often low cost courses with hobby and skill-focused orientations), and (3) the types of specialized intellectual stimuli pieces you mentioned.

You make an excellent point when you point to a good model in Manager Tools. Unfamiliar with them, I fancy from your description they offer some parallels to TED Talks. TED has, of course, gone from a few large meetings to additionally providing smaller and more specialized conferences. Perhaps more like a PowerPoint/MS Office MVPs site, some MOOCs might demonstrate tips via courses and encourage work for MVPs/consultants associated with instruction. Kudos on illustrating your perspective beautifully!

As I put MOOCs in context in the brave new world that is making online learning not just common but interesting (after all, I think part of the hype concerning MOOCs relates to “being part of” a “big project”/”cool trend”), I think back to Amy Collier’s keynote address at the fall conference: her focus was on recruiting educators to make MOOCs constructive, whatever ultimate business model they used. (Collier is the Director of Digital Learning Initiatives for Stanford University.) She urged attendees to be caring curators of information and to customize work; this is in keeping with what you suggested and what I suggested.

From the same conference, I also think back to a presentation by Michael Henry (University of Missouri-Kansas City) on “The MOOC: Educational Fad or Long-Term Solution?” and think about two key issues he discussed. The first was in his simple topic introduction: he listed off the many synonyms and variations for MOOCs, including such terms as “little open online course,” “social open online course,” and more. This, to me, demonstrates that people already accept the demand for various topics varies. Second, he - like Minding the Campus essayist Peter Sacks (and Collier) - points out that MOOCs have low completion rates. (In the last few months, I’ve heard and read everything from 24% completion to 4% completion!) This brings up such red flags as “perhaps people aren’t comfortable learning without more personal attention” (something I’ve worked with a team at our school to ensure is not the case for our online learners) and “perhaps people don’t invest time and energy when something significant {like money invested or a prospective degree) isn’t at stake.”

Sack’s article actually focuses on identifying “how to make MOOCs work” as related to accepting them as part of the educational landscape - by accepting they are not a replacement for traditional models and instead should be respected for (as Henry mentioned at the conference) fulfilling different functions.

All of these items bring me back around to the notion that we need to put MOOCs in context as tools, rather than replacements or as fly-by-night projects to soon fade away. Your ideas helped me solidify my thinking here, and for this I am grateful!

- Angela J. Sisson

References

Collier, A. “Keynote Address.” Presented at Focus on Teaching and Technology: A regional conference, October 25, 2013, St. Louis, MO.

Henry, M. “The MOOC: Educational Fad or Long-term Solution?” Presented at Focus on Teaching and Technology: A regional conference, October 25, 2013, St. Louis, MO.

Sacks, P. “How to Make MOOCs Work,” from Minding the Campus: Reforming Our Universities, January 14, 2014. Retrieved at http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2014/01/how_to_make_moocs_work.html

In response to: A Chartered Institute for Teaching?

2014-01-26T02:49:43Z

Four years on, have you made any progress. I work within the Early Years sector and if you’ve read anything about developments in this area you will have noted that we are struggling with the issue of professional recognition. My husband is a Chartered Civil Engineer and this status affords those using his services certain assurances that he has the professional expertise, as well as the academic qualifications.
Personally I think it is essential that all teachers have a ‘quality assurance scheme’ that is independent of any government body, relying on the professional appraisal of experienced peers only. Perhaps children will then stand a chance of getting an education based on pedagogy, rather than an education designed to enhance league tables and pisa scores.