Tuesday, September 9, 2014

New Beginnings for MOOCs and Flips

This is the year of new beginnings...

- I got a new position as a Technology Coach, after 17 years teaching middle years students.

- I started a new class for Grad Studies with EC & I 831.

- I enrolled in a MOOC... Which I intend on actually completing this time... Maybe.

So here is a photo of my enrollment in a "Teaching Flipped" class with Canvas Network. I'm not sure if this is a "reputable MOOC" site like Coursera,  Stanford Free Courses, or MIT Free Courses, but it met my requirements... It was FREE, open for enrollment and looked like something I could apply to my current career.



I have tried to explore the blended learning model, but I didn't really fully immerse my classroom in the model. Now that I don't have my own classroom, but many classrooms in which I will be working, I imagine there might be some teachers interested in exploring this model.

Tonight, I started by examining the course expectations, a few of the modular resources and completed a short survey. One aspect I really appreciated about the survey, was that it had participants state whether or not they were just "an observer", "passive participant" or "Fully engaged participant". It was hard not to laugh. A class that fully acknowledges that you just want to take what you want from the class and not necessarily be bothered by "class requirements" - What a concept! So I plan on just being a "user" of this Flipped Teaching MOOC and just take what I want without too much "emotional" investment. I mean it's not that I don't want to invest in meaningful heartfelt discussions... I feel like that I will already have that with this class! :-)

I think that the whole premise of the MOOC is nicely explained in this video I found on Youtube, when searching that answers the question, "What is a MOOC?"

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