Looking for new Mooc

First I must apologize to mozilla.org as I did enjoy teachtheweb but after week 2 and a laptop issue,  I found I could not get re-interested. I quess this is why I tell people, MOOC's are not for college students or at least not most of them. It takes a high level of self discipline and a passion for the subject matter.  I quess I am not that passionate about coding. Shame really, teachtheweb explained it well in week 1 "The more you put in/invest the bigger the return".  I could not get excited enough to invest much and it shows.

I loved mixing pages and boning up my html and css skills but missed not being able to make the weekly session due to logistics. Week three brought grouping and I came in late; no one replied to my Google Plus so there you have it.

I'm way to much of a connectivist to feel so alone and a little behind.  Different from Etmooc, where I had no problem catching up if I lagged off.  But the wierd thing is I finished all of my "assignments" from etmooc.org (though not a valid word for a MOOC I suppose).  Everyweek and day, I looked at my google plus others blogs and had a blast.  This is me.  Not #teachtheweb, which is a total bummer as I really need PD hours after a year of working at the post-secondary  level and doing social media.   I have lost the focus I had for etmooc.  But I'd like to try again.

Anyone of my fellow MOOCer's have a new MOOC or course to suggest?  I need a new MOOC for the summer.  I am a connectivist at heart and have become a strong believer in connectivism and rhizomatic learning. Thanks to Alec Couros  and Dave Cormier for opening my eyes. :)

And to my followers, I missed you, I'll blog more, I promise, or better yet, I'll comment more!

WebMaker's Thimble - Week 2 of MOOC

Well as you may or may not know, I am now participating in #teachtheweb sponsored by Mozilla.org.  Week 2 has begun and I have found some interesting changes from my last MOOC, etmooc.  More about that later….Ok, This weeks assignment, to create a “webby”.  As put on the home page of #teachtheweb the goal was to: create a webpage or video using Thimble,Popcorn Maker or Xray.

Please view my very simple Thimble project here.

Good thing, my link was in my browser history as I couldn’t begin to tell you how one goes about finding their projects on Thimble. At first I thought this would be a great tool for teaching html but I find myself on the fence.  Here are a few of my issues and remember, I love to jump in and play and learn as I go so I created a "persona", required by Mozilla and off I went.

 1. Once I picked my template, I did not like the font. Nothing in the documentation to help you there, umm, where is the Q and A ?

2. I found myself using the html code I already had knowledge of in order to make some adjustments. This would be cumbersome for a newbie to coding, there is no way to find out how to do things your template does not allow, such as center, enter or remove a page break, change columns etc.

3. Once you sign in, I literally could not find my project.  There was nothing under my login name except the option to logout. I have left a screen shot below. I was surprised that not only could I not find my project, that meant I could not edit it nor do I have any html for embedding.Does it have that option?

On the plus side, using the templates provides does help a student learn html and some css as long as they are willing to read the comments thoroughly and be willing to do some googling for features, fonts, colors, headers.  I think that it is great that you can see the changes you make to the html and css directly on the create/edit page which does help the beginner a great deal.  I believe if you can immediately see your work it makes more sense and their I give Thimble huge kudos.It was great to be able to see how your changes affected your page in a dynamic creative environment.

On Moocing, I feel bad as I do not nearly have the time I had during etmooc.  I think it is funny that people are worried about due dates and such.

The MOOC experience is just that an experience and you will get highly stressed out if you look at all the posts and feel behind.  My advise, take it at your own speed, digest it, it's Ok, not to be right there with the tide, you will catch up and if not I am sure what you will find that what you have learned you have also digested, analyzed, created and shared.

The connectivist approach used in this type of MOOC allows for a NEED FOR TIME. You need to have and give the time to read other's blogs, look at their work, comment comment away and then find yourself amazed with all that you have learned when you do have the time to sit back and reflect and blog (hopefully).

As we move into week 2, connected learning, I urge you to look at Rhizomatic Learning by Dave Cormier. It is an amazing concept and to give you an idea I will quote Dave's Blog post

"The rhizome is a stem of plant, like hops, ginger or japanese bamboo, that helps the plant spread and reproduce. It responds and grows according to its environment, not straight upwards like a tree, but in a haphazard networked fashion.  As with the rhizome the rhizomatic learning experience is multiple, has no set beginning or end, – “a rhizome creates through the act of experimentation.”   The idea is to think of a classroom/community/network as an ecosystem in which each person is spreading heir own understanding with the pieces the available in that ecosystem. The public negotiation of that ‘acquisition’ (through content creation, sharing) provides a contextual curriculum to remix back into the existing research/thoughts/ideas in a given field. Their own rhizomatic learning experience becomes more curriculum for others."

Looking forward to week 2 and miss the online meetings.  They really help me to stay motivated and focused when I was in etmooc.

Rhizomatic Learning and Comments are How I Learn

Had to add this picture, I love it!

I left this as a comment on a blog today, but realized it makes a great post so here it is.... Ah, the power of comments is a lovely thing. Watching the exchange on the subject on rhizomatic lerning from Louwarnoud van der Duim's Blog has helped me put rhizomatic learning in perspective.

Thanks you to both @louwarnoud, as I had similar notions until I kept on looking and reading Dave's Blog. I no longer think that rhizomatic learnging is just for those empowered or smarter. It does not need an internet connection. It truly takes a facilitator with an open mind. Please feel free to see my blog post which stemmed from similar thoughts until I came upon the blog post on classroom20.com, Who is Educating Us.

You see when "formal education" is introduced to a community that did not have it, they do lose out, and I quote

"One of the most profound changes that occurs when modern schooling is introduced into traditional societies around the world is a radical shift in the locus of power and control over learning from children, families, and communities to ever more centralized systems of authority.Once learning is institutionalized under a central authority, both freedom for the individual and respect for the local are radically curtailed. The child in a classroom generally finds herself in a situation where she may not move, speak, laugh, sing, eat, drink, read, think her own thoughts, or even use the toilet without explicit permission from an authority figure. Family and community are sidelined, their knowledge now seen as inferior to the school curriculum".

Now if that is not proof that we are at our hearts rhizomatic learners, I'm not sure what does! Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Many have expanded my mind when it comes to rhizomatic learning. I still have questions, see my last post..but I think we are wired for rhizomatic learning and if not it is because we were told that's just not how things work! What a shame. I have come to terms with the rhizomatic learning and the power of backtracking and commenting on blogs have helped me to form my own roads. Actually I don't think I have enjoyed a journey like this in a while so Thank you Dave Cormier, because well your awesome and I'm pretty sure I'd like a "badge" for being a rhizomatic learner. Thanks to Lou as I enjoyed your blog and posts immensely. To Carol Black for the amazing paper/post on "Who controls what you learn", and to Sue, as she always comments and has shared and confirmed that looking back and commenting really does add to my knowledge; and last but not least thank you ETMOOC as you have helped me grow and connect!. Thanks for reading.. Love to hear your thoughts.

Who Controls What You Learn and Rhizomatic Learning

Today, I sat down and tried to wrap my brain around Rhizomatic Learning w/ Dave Cormier which I watched last night in the etmooc archives. Ok, so let me get this straight.. "We, as in all of us, or those in a class or Mooc" decide what the learning goals are?? Or is it that we are just introduced to a concept and end up going where it takes us? I must admit, I did not join etmooc without two goals. 1. To me more connected with like minded people. 2. To get and share great ideas in emerging technology and digital identities" as it pertains to my own curriculum design pursuits. I teach/facilitate in Computer Technology and that is why I am connected. I don't think I would be a very valuable teacher in the 21st century if I did not keep up with technology, technology is connections, new applciations, freedom on knowledge, blogging for reflection...sharing with wiki's and learning how to do it correctly(at least that is what I see).

In a Rhizomatic learning environment, do you sign up for a course that states "you decide what you will learn"?? Wow, would'nt that be great! I love etmooc and I love online learning, blogging, wiki's, new apps to play with. So the sad news is while I do teach these courses, they still have very specific standards which I must state in my syllabus and my goals for the week/unit must be detailed in our online CMS. I am blessed as I get to make my own curriculum as it pertains to the standards but that was not the case when I was in public education.

So I am grateful but yet I am stuck. What could be and what is reality is so different. Those of us that share and connect learn so much more than those who follow the conventional models of being educated but they do not have a choice. How do we get that to change?? I love the concept, I love that it has a meaningful name but how do we help others see the light??

Visit Classroom 2.0
Today, I tool a small break and moved over to my classroom2.0 community. There I found the longest and most powerful blog/paper I had read in a long time. Carol Black will be speaking to the classroom 2.0 community on FutureofEducation.com February 5th. The topic is "Who is Educating us", Please read her blog post On Power, Knowledge, and the Re-Occupation of Common Sense. It was after I read this powerful change seen in communities that go from community education to "formal" education that I realized they were essentially being stripped of great lessons and being removed from their culture of learning. You see we need rhizomatic learning, in is in our nature as human beings yet we strip in away as soon as we empose "standards", or "goals as deemed by others". The most powerful thing I received from reading the whole blog was the following:

In “developed” societies, we are so accustomed to centralized control over learning that it has become functionally invisible to us, and most people accept it as natural, inevitable, and consistent with the principles of freedom and democracy. We assume that this central authority, because it is associated with something that seems like an unequivocal good – “education” – must itself be fundamentally good, a sort of benevolent dictatorship of the intellect. We allow remote “experts” to dictate what we must learn, when we must learn it, and how we must learn it. We grant them the right to test us, to measure the contents of our brains and the value of our skills, and then to brand us in childhood with a set of numeric rankings that have enormous power over our future opportunities to participate in the economic and political life of our society. We endorse strict legal codes which render this process compulsory, and in a truly Orwellian twist, many of us now view it as a fundamental human right to be legally compelled to learn what a higher authority tells us to learn.

You see in her blog and I quote: "One of the most profound changes that occurs when modern schooling is introduced into traditional societies around the world is a radical shift in the locus of power and control over learning from children, families, and communities to ever more centralized systems of authority. While all cultures are different, in many non-modernized societies children enjoy wide latitude to learn by free play, interaction with other children of multiple ages, immersion in nature, and direct participation in adult work and activities."

They had rhizomatic learning and it is now gone. They are forced into classrooms where the state/government decide what they must learn. If you have made it through reading the longest post I have writtent to date, I would love to hear what you think.. How do we move more towards a Rhizomatic learning model? Is it possible? Do you see why Carol Black and myself are so upset that natural learning has been replaced?? Your comments as always are appreciated. :)