Week 3 wrapup - Miniscule open online course theory and ePortfolios

[Vance Stevens]

Hi everyone, I'm back in Abu Dhabi.

 

Thanks Jen for taking care of the shop while I was away.  I think Jen is off on a well deserved holiday now. Dennis has had to drop out as co-moderator. It's Nelba's and my turn to guide proceedings.

 

George Siemens once told us that his job in directing a MOOC, a massive online open course, was to provide cohesion and content.  It is up to the participants to network and glean knowledge from that content.

 

I met with Rita Abdelnour just the other day in Lebanon.  She participated in this event at this time last year (and she's lurking in this one, hi Rita :-).  She told me it was difficult for her to see the cohesion in what we had laid out in our syllabus.  I told her I appreciated that feedback, and I would like to try and explain more here in simple terms.

 

I guess you could say that so far we have laid down certain foundations. One is that we are applying in this course a MOOC framework where I have taken the liberty to call this a miniscule online open course.  I have changed massive to miniscule because I think the framework scales, and you can find clear (and brief) explanations of the concept in Dave Cormier's 3 videos in the first three weeks of the Goodbyegutenberg syllabus; for example the last one here, about knowledge in a MOOC: http://goodbyegutenberg.pbworks.com/Week3EVO2011

 

I explained how this concept is applied to this course in my last Sunday presentation Jan 16.  You can find the recording here:

https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2011-01-16.0517.M.7AE801FFB6... 

or

http://tinyurl.com/16jan2011evomlit

 

In this presentation I echoed Dave's suggestion that to find your way through a MOOC you need to orient, declare, network, cluster, and focus. Many of you are well on your way to doing all of these things.  What this means is you orient yourself in the materials that are laid out for you (see what berries are available in the bush and plot how you will access the ones that appeal to you most).  You then declare your intention to interact (in an introduction perhaps -- you make yourself known to others).  You then network with the others in the group.  This network actually is one of the great outcomes of a MOOC, it's what you take away from the MOOC that enables further learning afterwards.  You eventually find people in the network who wish to pursue knowledge similar to what you are interested in.  For example, some here have done this successfully in the Facebook thread.  Finally you focus on the knowledge you wish to gain.

 

For focus, we suggest you start or augment your eporfolio.  This will be our most significant thread during the remainder of our allotted time together.

 

I hope to discuss this with you further today, Sunday, January 30 at 13:00 GMT in Elluminate http://tinyurl.com/y3eh 

 

At that time I plan to talk about eportfolios and why they are an excellent way for mature 21st century learners to track and reflect on their learning goals and accomplishments.

 

I started using eportfolios with multiliteracies participants in the Jan 2010 rendition of Multiliteracies session.  I created a portal for the eportfolios those participants created, here:
http://vancestevens.com/papers/tesol/pp107/eportfolios10.htm

In my presentation today I plan to discuss with those present some of the many affordances of eportfolios that make them ideal tools for mature learners to perform self-assessment, and even for institutional assessment for such learners; e.g.

• They motivate students/participants by providing global audience (Let's use the term students here to suggest that you might apply these principles and techniques not just to this course but to your own classrooms)
• Hence students spend more time perfecting them for peers than they do for a teacher
• Thus they encourage global perspective
• They are connectivist
• They introduce learners to social networking, concept of networked learning
• They fit well with MOOC philosophy
• They invite dialog, conversation (clustering)
• They are constructivist
• They encourage reflection
• They encourage learners to set their own goals, propose learning strategies, document milestones, and present outcomes
• They are owned by learners, not by institution 
• They are sometimes maintained by learners after a course ends
• Thus they carry over into lifelong learning
• They carry over into real life (as cv's for example)
• They help make learners aware of their personal web presence
• As assessment tools they are formative

Later I will ask you as participants in the 2011 EVO session on Multiliteracies to share your progress on making your eportfolios to track your learning in this session. 

 

For more background on eportfolios please explore the links in our syllabus here:

http://goodbyegutenberg.pbworks.com/Week2EVO2011
 

Another VERY important concept covered in the first 3 weeks of this session is TAGGING, but we'll explore this thread elsewhere.

 

I hope to see some of you online later today.  For those who can't make it, the session will of course be recorded.  For more information about our Sunday events see: http://learning2gether.pbworks.com/

 

 

[Jennifer Verschoor]

Hello Vance,

 

I am glad to know you had a great time during your holidays. I´ll try to be online depending on the local Internet access.

 

Have a wonderful live session today.

Warm regards

Jennifer

[Vance Stevens]

I think today's session was revealing regarding how many concepts of ePortfolios there can be. If you're wondering what one is, this should shed some light:

Recording in Elluminate:

    * http://tinyurl.com/2011jan30epflio
    * https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2011-01-30.0527.M.7AE801FFB6...

Hope at least one of these works for you.  Thanks those who were there.

[Luciana Caldeira]

Hi Vance,

As a newbie in this world of MOOCs I have to say I was feeling lost in the begining, but you have guided us so very effectively that now I feel safer about the path I have to follow (maybe too safe) and have been trying different things to get the most from this first experience. Although you have advised us not to try and read everything, that is something I can't do and then I get angry when I lose something. I haven't been able to take part in the live sessions yet, but try to listen to it later. So far, I think I have managed to do lots of things, I met wonderful teachers, started blogging and building my PNE, started an eportfolio, and got to know amazing technology tools to teach and manage my students learning process. I would say I am satisfied already, but still we have two weeks to come. I'll tell you then, about my evaluation of everything again.

Thanks a lot!

[Vance Stevens]

Thanks Luciana.  It seems you are adapting very well to the world of miniscule (or massive) open online courses.  I've just visited your blog, left a comment, and tagged it in delicious so it will show up here: http://www.delicious.com/tag/evomlit.  I hope others will show us their eportfolios soon so we can all leave our comments on them.

[Luciana Caldeira]

Thanks Vance, your comments are very stimulating.

[Vanessa Vaile]

I'd recommend that anyone considering a MOOC encounter of the massive kind start modestly in workshop like this one to become familiar with the organizing principles and webtools in a less overwhelming and more social, supportive environment already in place via the strong, well established Webhead network that is the Multilit backbone