Digital Citizenship - Week Eleven

This was a fantastic week that I truly enjoyed. I have book marked extra sites into my diigo from this week that I have not had a chance to explore yet but will well after the course is complete. The week was jammed with all sorts of exciting and interesting information that every good digital citizen should know about.

The first thing that we explored was the MOOC or Massive Online Open Course. These seem to be growing as more and more Ivy League Universities are starting to get involved. In my feedy a few weeks ago I came across a very interesting piece that indicated there would always be the need for a teacher. The thing is, the teacher will change. In my view, it becomes even more important that we teach children how to be good digital citizens because they could be participating and collaborating with other students in away that they transition back and forth from being the learner to being the teacher and back again. 

I really enjoyed the reading that was set out in the course as well. It is kind of interesting that we see all these people wondering why a College or University would venture into the realm of MOOC's. One such article speaks to the lack of a business plan by these institutions. The suggestion that eventually they charge actually defeats the purpose of an open or free course. So why would they do it? I believe that they have thought it through very nicely. In fact, the article does brush on the subject of attracting students. I think this is at the root. As our World becomes more of one large global community, attracting the best students becomes an increasingly harder task. I think that the best students will be in these MOOC's. Those that succeed must be master students as defined by Ellis, Toft and Dawson (2012), so my question is why would you not want to reach out to these students?

I think that by going where the students are, online learning, they have a better chance of drawing them into the programs that already exist in their institutions. There is no way a student would sign up for a MOOC delivered by some no name person run out of the spare bedroom of an apartment somewhere when they can sign up to a MOOC delivered by Harvard with a rock start in the field as the subject mater expert. These Ivy League schools will push the small guys back out of the market and at the same time, once they have the infrastructure built, be doing their recruitment at a fraction of the cost. The revolution in education is upon us. Not really. I think that we have a really cool way of learning and connecting through MOOC's but it will still be the degree that gets you the job.

The other piece that we explored this week was pod and screencasting. I found these to be great tools that can be used in your PLE (personal learning environment). I think that there is a huge advantage for an educator to use both of these tools to create mini lectures and demonstrations on subjects that can then be used by students around the world and for generations to come. One such person who has been successful has been Kahn. Of course, there will always be those who think that these tools are not good and will start to pick them apart. I found a great article written from a neutral stand that will allow the reader to make their own choice. In my mind these tools are great and will always be part of my future PLE, whether I am officially the teacher or the student.

The other very important piece we explored was adding a creative commons license to our Blog. You can find mine at both the top and bottom of my blog. This is critical for anyone who wants to utilize the tools of web 2.0. I think that there really should be another agreement process we have to go through that shows us where and how to get and protect ourselves with a creative commons license before we can go onto the internet. I now know how to do it, have book marked the page, and will make sure in the future I will add a license to anything I create and post. 

I found two great pieces in my feedy this week that I really want to share. The first is on using your Diigo to automatically feed you the information for a daily blog. This is a cool idea and i can hardly wait to try it out. The second is an interesting cartoon that was posted as well. Not much information here but it will leave you thinking about how we look at students. I hope you look at this cartoon and reflect on how many fish you have ever asked to climb a tree.

Have a great weekend.

Jeff

Chen, Angela. (2012). Parody Critiques Popular Khan Academy Videos. Retrieved from; http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/parody-critiques-popular-khan-academy-videos/37543

Davis, Vickie, (2013). How to automatically post bookmarks to your post using Diigo. Retrieved from; http://www.coolcatteacher.com/videos/automatically-post-bookmarks-blog-using-diigo/?utm_source=feedly

Davis, Vickie, (2013). The education Cartoon everyone Should Read. Retrieved from; http://www.coolcatteacher.com/quotes/education-cartoon-everyone-read/?utm_source=feedly

Ellis,D. Toft, D. and Dawson, D. (2012) Becoming a Master Student. (5th ed).Toronto, Ont. Canada.

Gsiemens, (2013). WISE Panel: Can MOOC's democratize higher education. Retrieved from; http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/2013/11/05/wise-panel-can-moocs-democratize-higher-education/

McKenna, Laura. (2012). The big Idea That an Revolutionize Higher Education: MOOC's. Retrieved from; http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/05/the-big-idea-that-can-revolutionize-higher-education-mooc/256926/

 Selingo, Jeff. (2012). As Elite Colleges Invite the World Online, Questions Remain on their Business Plan. Retrieved from; http://chronicle.com/blogs/next/2012/05/19/as-elite-colleges-open-to-the-world-online-questions-remain-on-business-plan/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en