Massive Open Online Courses

MOOCs, or massive open online courses, are a grassroots democratic innovation that will turn the higher ed business model on it’s head.  Or a disorganized pipe dream with a complete lack of accountability that will go the way of Friendster and the Dodo bird.  It depends on who you ask.

These online courses, many being offered free of charge by top Universities, are a way to provide access for would-be students who are motivated but disenfranchised.  MOOC enthusiasts point to rising education costs that fuel massive student debt.  Students are deposited into a “real world” with a terrible job market, indentured servants to their degree with a salary that is lost in the hulking shadow of their debt.  I would argue that while this is true, maybe point the finger at wages that have stagnated since the 1970′s? But that’s for a different blog.

Detractors say that they won’t work, people won’t complete them, there isn’t enough accountability, people can cheat, there is little value since many don’t offer assessment.  I am on board with this last criticism to a point; I have taught myself to knit, build a table(with help), and prepare many different dishes online, and when I was done I knew if they were right or wrong.  It is little more slippery with intellectual work, how does a student know he/she REALLY gets it without some teacher involvement?  Many MOOCs offer peer review, which can be constructive, but what if the whole group is lost at sea?  Wouldn’t that be a case of the blind leading the blind?

It’s really too soon to say.  According to Wikipedia, the first MOOC was offered in 2008, so this movement is really still at it’s infancy.  It just might change everything forever, or it might fizzle out.  In the meantime, here are my ideas for the place of MOOCs in education, society, the world!

Who are MOOCs for?  MOOCs offer access to huge populations of the world that previously would have never considered higher ed possible.  I enrolled in a Gamification course with Coursera (which I didn’t complete :*-) and was amazed at the nations represented by enrolled students.  It’s hard to make an argument that this is anything but good, especially since professors are volunteering their time and the institutions who pay the bills that are associated with MOOCs can afford it.

MOOCs also offer professional development for the college grad who missed out on a skill while in school, or wants to stay current.  This is an application I can see using myself.  I have enrolled in an early literacy class to take during my two month break, just to keep my mind where it needs to be.  I would imagine the flexibility of these courses would also appeal to teachers looking to fill PD requirements.

My online googlings haven’t yielded evidence that people are doing this, but I am intrigued with the idea of teaching a MOOC to a high school class.  I think that the low-stakes nature of the MOOC could be a great way for students to get a feel for college-level work.  A commonly cited criticism of MOOCs is the lack of interaction, which can make it difficult for students to connect with learning.  The high school librarian could co-teach a MOOC, using the readings, standards, and assignments from the real course, but offering support and explanations during the course.  This process would familiarize students with the idea of using a syllabus, reading journal articles, and writing on the college level.  It could also be a powerful confidence builder.  Can you imagine the pride each student would feel after successfully completing a course from an Ivy-League school?

Future: I like the idea of MOOC “bites”.  These would be short courses that drill down on one concept or skill.  This model would be less of a commitment, and they could even be joined together for people who want a bigger picture.  For example, my #IST611 class, IT in Educational Organizations, consisted of 15 separate but related modules.  I think it would be very user-friendly, in the MOOC version of this course, to break these up, allowing students to select only what they need.  This would make MOOCs more individualized and I’m willing to bet would result in an increase in completion.   These MOOC minis could also be pulled into high school curriculum quite easily, or even used for summer programs or enrichment.

Are MOOCs The Next Internet?  Maybe not.  I do think that these courses reflect the generous and optimistic spirit of web innovators.  The ideas that led to the development of MOOCs might be grandiose and idealistic, but if they improve lives and education, even on a non-grandiose scale, I say bravo!

Wiggio as a Learning Management System

http://wiggio.com is an online tool that “makes it easy to work in groups”.  

Wiggio is a web-based platform that boasts many features that can be useful for educators, including:

• News Feed
• Conferencing tools, from virtual meetings to chats
• Suite of tools similar to Microsoft Office
• Polls (a wonderful complement to inquiry-based learning)
• Options to link member phone numbers (for texting) or email addresses

This feature-rich program offers many possibilities for educators. 

For elementary school students Wiggio can serve as a line of communication between parents and students.  Students can begin to develop 2.0 skills by uploading their work to Wiggio to share with parents.  Many daycare providers text throughout the day to keep parents updated on progress their child has made.  Wiggio allows teachers to extend this connection to parents throughout the school day.  This connection between the library and the parent’s mobile device can be powerful, turning parents into advocates as they see the impact of the library on their child’s learning. 

Wiggio can also be an introduction to the concept of using a Learning Management System (LMS).  For example, teachers can create a folder for each project and link to online resources, assignments, and tools for scaffolding skills.  Online LMSs are highly effective and widely used, even with in-person education, so it is important for students to become familiar with the function of the LMS in the learning process.  Offering an online learning space also gives students a chance to develop an understanding of netiquette and digital citizenship in a safe and monitored environment. 

For high school students Wiggio continues to be valuable for developing familiarity with the function of the LMS and developing digital citizenship skills.  Since students are older and more technology savvy, they can use even more of the features of Wiggio.  It is possible to set up sub-groups within a larger group, which is helpful when students are collaborating in small groups. 

Older students can take a more active role in managing the page, conducting their own polls, starting student-generated resource lists, collaborating on documents, and initiating their own chats or meetings.  Wiggio makes a connection between home and school, allowing even the most busy students to work collaboratively, sometimes asynchronously.  It is very important for students to become comfortable with this process as global collaboration becomes more and more common. 

For school teams Wiggio can be adopted school-wide for use with the collaborations, large and small, that happen between faculty.  Wiggio can work for something as mundane as a book processing project to something as ambitious as cross-curricular team-wide collaborations.  Educators collaborate on a daily basis, sharing strategies, establishing clubs, organizing events, and designing new curriculum.  Often these collaborations happen through a combination of email and in-person chats.  Educators feel comfortable with these ways of communicating, and should continue to use them.  In fact, Wiggio can enhance these methods of collaborating by centralizing communications, and establishing records that team-members can refer to.  More and more research supports the theory that teachers who collaborate across subjects are more effective and their students are more engaged.  In spite of a somewhat crowded interface, Wiggio is very simple to use and adoption will both add value and save time. 

3-D Printers in Libraries and Making at School

I just watched this video by Meg Backus about the future of 3-D printing.

First, I would like to say, my head just exploded. So far, I have reserved judgement for the 3-D printer craze. After watching a few videos of people printing car parts, gun parts (!), etc. I thought, sure, it is cool for specific applications but they are expensive and they use plastic pellets. How many things is it really practical for the finished product to be made out of beige plastic? After watching this video, which did a great job of describing the future of the technology, I am floored. The idea of loading up a machine with garbage and turning it into a teddy bear (for example) is really incredible!

I see MAKING as the very essence of inquiry. I have an idea, I do some research to try to figure out how to make it, I give it a try. Did it come out right? If not, tweak and try again. This process could make a cool flowchart that would really emphasize the fluid nature of the inquiry process (both the Stripling model and generally). The level of engagement throughout this process is almost unparalleled, and the thinking involved is the very peak of Bloom’s Taxonomy: creating something completely new. Students could actually start cottage industries right in the school. Want a second 3-D printer for the library, kids? Invent something people want and sell enough to buy it. BAM! How much cooler is that than selling wrapping paper door to door

The most obvious application for this technology is for math and science class. Thinking in 3-D develops spatial reasoning, and the making process mirrors the scientific method. Math and science aren’t always the most beloved subjects, especially by high school. This technology necessitates practical application, making content relevant. With 3-D printing, there is complete ownership, putting the power of the learning process squarely in the learner’s hands.

Using 3-D printing to teach curriculum touches on all of the elements of the ARCS model. Attention, in the form of a shiny new and unfamiliar technology, Relevance, since students will be designing and producing products for real-world use, Confidence because the teacher and librarian will scaffold the process until students are comfortable with the technologies, and the Satisfaction for the student of holding an object that he created, from inception to production.

30 Second PSA

I made an animoto video warning of the dangers of the School Library!

http://animoto.com/play/ItBM3Bc916J4wbdlfQQq7w

Gamify School!

This is a presentation I did with ideas on using game mechanics for motivation in education:

http://prezi.com/x744lhlsqzoe/gamifying-curriculum/

Q CARES?

This week we are talking about QR codes; why, when, and how should we use them in school libraries?

I think that QR codes are way overused as a tech gimmick, often linking to sites or Facebook pages that are easily accessible through Google or to sites that are not mobile friendly.  Still, I came have come around a bit after learning more about them this week.  I think that they can be useful for sharing mobile-friendly content that isn’t easily googleable, like Dr Arnone’s example of the page within a site that has a large URL.

I also think they can be awesome for making connections and reaching out to the community, and this is where I can see using them in schools.  For example, if a class is finding out facts about local historical locations it would be fun to put some facts online and have QR codes put up at the actual locations so that members of the community can use them to link to the investigations that the students have made.  Students could create a walking tour of a historical area and put up QR codes at each stop that link to the corresponding page.  I like this idea because it creates something valuable for the community and gets the students thinking outside the walls of the school.  The same could be done with student generated projects about local wildlife.

If the students had phones the teacher could organize a scavenger hunt where students follow clues that take them from place to place, with the online clues accessed with QR codes.

Building something together

The wiki is the most versatile and useful and amazing and simple 2.0 tool out there for use in education. They are so simple to use that as soon as kids understand the structure of the internet and have basic computer skills they are ready to contribute.

Three categories of types of wikis for educational use:

1. Personal interests. A wiki can include anything! If your school has a Minecraft or World of Warcraft club, they can start a wiki to share tips and ideas. The library can have a wiki for students to review books they love, divided into sub categories by genre. This page could also include a suggestions page where students can post ideas for genres or specific books that they want to see in the library. If the students in the school have a gardening club, they could start a wiki that describes problems they have had in the garden with bugs or soil type and describe what they tried to fix the problem, and what worked. The lego club could have wiki with photos of their masterpieces and links to projects that they want to try. Kids who like arts and crafts can have a wiki for projects and things that inspire them (Pinterest might be better for that but there would be password issues). Cheerleaders can have a wiki that includes techniques they have used to nurse injuries, links to videos that inspire them, and lyrics to cheers they have written. My point is that the potential is limitless. The school library can offer a link to a wiki portal where all of the wikis that the students have created are there with illustrated links.
2. Teacher collaboration. Wikis can be a tool for sharing both PD and skill tips as well as content resources. Each grade and subject can have a page where teachers share tips that they have learned during various PD conferences and workshops about teaching the CCSS. This way, when they need something new to bring to the classroom, they can reference what their colleagues are doing as well as what has been successful and tested in other classrooms. They can also have a wiki page for resources. Wikipages have a hierarchical structure which can keep resources(online, bibliographical, as well as pdfs of worksheets and activity pages) organized. For an example: 4th grade social studies>NYS History>Iroquois Nation>specific resources used 5th grade science>Animal projects>Specific animals>resources These wikis will become richer and more robust with yearly use.
3. Student collaboration. If the class is working in groups the wiki is the perfect tool to share resources, brainstorm, and perfect final products. These wikis are more likely to be used only for the duration of the project, but if final products are saved to them, it could be helpful to go back and reference when creating a portfolio or simply to share with parents when they ask that open ended question that every kid dreads, what did you learn in school today?

The great thing about wikis is that they become better as years go by and more and more people perfect them. By maintaining these school wikis, the school is creating a new resource, perfectly tailored fit the needs of the students and staff. Since there is editing information saved behind the scenes, ineffective changes can be overruled by the librarian. Since students have a sign-in, vandalism is not anonymous. In fact, by putting the power of maintaining the wikis in the students hands while setting a tone that encourages respect and constructive collaboration, the wikis can be a big part of creating a culture of positive digital citizenship.

I’m sure there are many more great ways to use wikis!  I plan to start small though, because generating content can be a slow process, supervising use of wikis can be time consuming, and it is always a good idea to present small successes before insisting on widespread adoption.  Starting a wiki program is a step-by-step process that can yield big rewards.