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LEARNING ONLINEMOODLE, MOOC’S AND OUR MODEL FOR DISTANCE LEARNING.PAUL TREADWELL | MARCH 2013
GOALS FOR THIS WEBINAR
At the end of this session you should
• Leave with an understanding of what “distance learning” is
• Understand our history of involvement with structured online courses
• Be able to locate “MOOC’s” on a map of distance learning
WHAT IS DISTANCE LEARNING?
LEARNING AT A DISTANCE
Is not a new thing• Correspondence courses (1890’s)• Radio (1930’s)• Television (1960’s)• Internet (late 1990’s)
THE LAND GRANT AND DISTANCE ED
The land grant attempts to open access to education to a broad population
The presence of county offices, across NYS, embeds the institution in the community
Educators (previously county agents) facilitate the exchange of information and creation of knowledge
Learning is both a facilitated and collaborative process
CURRENT DL TOOLS/TECHNIQUES
We use a variety of tools for “distance learning” Moodle
WebEx (previously connect)
Youtube
Camtasia
Etc….
It all depends on what you mean (and what your intent is) when talking about Dl
BOUNDARIES OF OUR DISCUSSION TODAY
“Distance learning” encompasses a lot of territory.
Today we’ll be focusing on:• Structured• Scheduled (with duration)• (Generally) asynchronous• Social (Not solitary)
Online learning
INTENT AND OUR PARTICIPANTS
When I think about our participants/learners: Small groups of aspiring adults who desire to keep their minds fresh and vigorous; who begin to
learn by confronting pertinent situations; who dig down into the reservoirs of their experience before resorting to texts and secondary facts; who are led in the discussion by teachers who are also searchers after wisdom and not oracles: this constitutes the setting for adult education, the modern quest for life's meaning. Lindeman 1926a: 4-7
Lindeman, E. (1926). The meaning of adult education. New York: New Republic.
OUR FIRST VENTURE INTO STRUCTURED ONLINE LEARNING
The How, When and Why of Forest Farming
Initial development of learning content for presentation online.• Video “modules” demonstrating
practicesNon interactive presentation of content
EMBRACING THE CHALLENGE OF LEARNING WITH
• Academic knowledge constitutes a part of the overall • Practice based knowledge constitutes an equal, if not
greater, part• Documenting, sharing and testing this knowledge
becomes part of the learning process
The knowledge base for forest farming in the Northeast is
broadly distributed:
• The role of the instructor/facilitator becomes one of creating a space for sharing and discussion.
• Expert knowledge is not held by one, but distributed among many
In this case, Learning is a collaborative
process among peers
SOCIAL E-LEARNING, CIRCA 2005
HWWFF V2 - CHOOSING MOODLE
SARE funded project to support development of the Forest Farming learning community
Evaluation of lcms packages, other software to host learning community
Selection of MOODLE
• Integrated social features (Forums)• Assessment tools• Repository
EARLY LESSONS
The initial run of HWWFF Demographic diversity
Participants ranged in age from mid-twenties to seventy plus
Technical challenges
Access to video content is problematic on a dial up connection
Alternative provision of video content was needed (cd’s)
Questioning the value of free
Erratic participation
EXPANDING OUR PORTFOLIO
The potential of distance learning as a viable method for engaging learners, and creating opportunities for participatory, social learning was demonstrated (albeit with some qualifications) by the successes of the HWWFF
Subsequent courses developed included: Grafting ( a remaking of an existing course by Ken Mudge)
Organic Gardening
Internal (Staff) development courses
CURRENT EXAMPLES
Beginning Farmers Program
Botanical Illustration
Permaculture
Suffolk County courses
PMEP
WE ARE NOT MASSIVE
Our (CCE) online courses generally have between 15-40 participants per “session”• This represents what our experiences have shown to be
effective for engaging in social e-learning• At the upper end (30 to 40 participants) there are often 2
instructors/facilitators• This insures adequate and timely responses to forum
postings, assignments etc…
MOOC’STHE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
MOOCMANIA
Massive Open Online Course Massive | 100’s to Thousands of participants
Open* | (theoretically) accessible, reusable
Online | Online
Course | Structured learning content
MASSIVELY OPEN ONLINE COURSES
Educause – (3 of)7 things you should know about MOOCs
a massively open online course (MOOC) is a model for delivering learning content online to virtually any person—with no limit on attendance—who wants to take the course.
A MOOC throws open the doors of a course and invites anyone to enter, resulting in a new learning dynamic, one that offers remarkable collaborative and conversational opportunities for students to gather and discuss the course content.
the most significant contribution is the MOOC’s potential to alter the relationship between learner and instructor and between academe and the wider community
MOOC MADNESS SWEEPS THE NATION
• Thomas Freidman January 26,2013 New York Times• “Nothing has more potential to lift more people out of
poverty … Nothing has more potential to unlock a billion more brains to solve the world’s biggest problems. ”
Revolution Hits the Universities
• Press-Telegram Long Beach, CA. February 17, 2013
California universities see future in online
classes
• David Skorton and Glenn Altschuler, January 28, 2013 Forbes
MOOCs: A College
Education Online?
EDX
UDACITY
COURSERA
COURSERA COURSE DESCRIPTION
COUNTERING VOICES
A selection of voices counter to the MOOC madness:• For Whom Is College Being Reinvented?• http://chronicle.com/article/The-False-Promise-of-the/13630
5/• Unthinking Technophilia• http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2013/01/14/essay-sa
ys-faculty-involved-moocs-may-be-making-rope-professional-hangings
• Inequality in American Education Will Not Be Solved Online• http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/01/ine
quality-in-american-education-will-not-be-solved-online/267189/
• Tree Sitting • http://thenewinquiry.com/blogs/zunguzungu/tree-sitting/
IS THIS REALLY THE FUTURE?
• Revolutionary• Transformative• Reinventing education
The flurry of aspirational,
optimistic language promoting MOOC’s
And MOOC’s may be all of the above but the question is after the revolution - after the transformation and re-invention – what does education look like?
CONTACT
Paul Treadwell [email protected]
@ptreadwell
http://www.paultreadwell.com
March 27, 2013
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