As an educator, I am keen at learning new things at any opportunity I could find. When MOOCs became prominent and were anticipated as “revolutionizing higher education” by offering high quality courses online to anyone in the world who has internet access, for free, I was amazed at this unique opportunity to learn from the leading minds of the world. I have had some good encounters with MOOCs, especially through Stanford University’s MOOC portal VentureLab, where I have undertaken a great course “Designing a New Learning Environment” (an experience I will post on later). However, I also had a rather unfortunate experience with two MOOCs offered by Duke University and Georgia Tech via Coursera Platform.

The first course “Think Again: how to reason and Argue”, offered by Duke University, focused on understanding arguments, deconstructing them so that we are able to construct our own arguments. How hard can it be right? The course was 12 weeks long, a fairly long MOOC. I was at first determined to finish the course as I felt I needed better arguments in my writing, and to explore more on the topic of reasoning. I was so zealous that I invited my students to join on the course to be co-learners, great right?

The first week was fine, as it was introductory. It actually was a bit funny with one hilarious video clip from Monty Python. The lectures were between 10 to 18 minutes long followed by a quick objective homework. It was not only till the second week that the lectures started becoming boring, and it’s not the content that was heavy. It was two factors, the lecture timing that ran till 25 minute long lectures and the professor’s redundant ranting.  I barely pulled through the second week alive. However, the third week was a killer. The lectures kept getting longer and the the lecturer becoming more redundant.

The lecturer was very knowledgeable in terms of content, and a lot of effort was put on the video production with all the illustrations around his head. However, he and the instructional designer failed to conceive the difference between a face-to-face lecture and an online one. Unlike face-to-face lectures, online video recorded lectures fail to address the immediacy and the physical touch.

The other MOOC was ironically titled “ Fundamental of Online Education: Planning and Application”. Such a catchy title yeah? I was intrigued by the course and its introduction, and thought it might offer me some new perspective on online education. Alas, the course itself was discontinued right into its second week as the lecturer and her participating doctoral students in educational technology, could not manage the sheer multitude of students attending the course.

They aimed to make it interactive and project-oriented. Thus, they shared a Google Spreadsheet to add our names to the desired group number. More than 40, 000 students tried to add their names to the spreadsheet. Imagine the chaos !!!! Google Spreadsheet works great as a group management tool, but for a much fewer number of students. I use it in my classes consistently to manage project groups, but my students are 45 and not 45, 000 !!!

After the course instructor admitted the failure of Google Spreadsheet to cope with the enormous number of students, she decided that we add our names to discussion threads. “If the thread posts are 21, then the thread (group) is full and you’ll have to find another thread of post your own topic”, she said.  Again, imagine the anarchy !!! No one knew what they were doing. Each discussion topic is named differently, numbered differently, some threads had hundreds of posts, others only a couple posts. This was when the instructors discontinued the course in the hope they might come back again with a different approach.

I am not against trial and error as a means to enhance instruction, but there are some things such as planning, with learners in mind, and this includes the number of attendees!! How did they envision Google Spreadsheet would work for 45, 000 students? What is more agonizing is that this course was supposed to teach us how to plan and implement online education, yup! I reckon that if the course goes back online again, very few would join in since this experience showed how incompetent they were. But then again, this course has taught me what not to do online, a great example to learn from!

I believe that MOOCs are a giant leap into the future of education, but unless we really plan well the online courses taking into consideration, content, pedagogy, and context (mode, learners in terms of age, knowledge, culture, and number), it won’t add much to revolutionize how we teach and learn.

MOOCs are the buzz word now for innovation in online teaching for the best universities in the world. Coursera, Udacity, Venture-lab, and Edx are only a few collaborative platforms for elite universities like Penn , Stanford, MIT, Harvard, Michigan, and much much more where they offer free courses for anyone in the world with internet access. I myself have enrolled in two courses in Coursera ( Gamification and Statistics I),and I am currently into my third week of a MOOC course Designing a New learning Environment , a project-oriented offered by Stanford University. I loved these courses, but I was really intrigued by the one I am undertaking now as its approach is socio-constructivist. What we teachers, from different levels and subjects, at our school did was that 9 of us signed up for the course, and we are now working as a team to construct a learning model and defend it by the end of the course. The learning possibilities are endless, but also the benefit for school is invaluable as we create a community of practice that was not possible at our work place ( I will soon post my reflections on the third week of the course). However, the question that was lingering in my mind from the first time I undertook a MOOC course was : Why not have our senior high school students take an instructor-led MOOC course? If so, what are the benefits of their taking courses? and, how are we going to integrate them in the school system?

Benefits for Student Taking a MOOC Course

Well, the way I envision it is that students will benefit in terms of rigor, diversity, and motivation.

Conducted by leading professors in higher education, MOOCs  add rigor to students’ studies. Students will have the chance to learn from and inspired by the leading minds in the world. Students will be exposed to college-level materials, discuss issues with world wide participants, and think critically as they tackle topics and questions raised by more knowledgeable people. They would also be supported by other participants in the online forums if they should need help.

MOOCs are diverse for senior high school students. First, students get to choose a course out of hundreds offered to them via MOOC platforms. They can choose any topic that they are passionate about, be it HTML5 Game Development, Social Psychology, or Modern and Contemporary American Poetry. They make the choice. This gives the students choice and ownership instead of the subjects imposed on them by the school, whether they like them or not. MOOCs are also diverse in terms of difficulty level. MOOCs target beginning, intermediate, or advanced levels. Students can choose the course that they feel are more comfortable with. MOOCs are also diverse in terms of course participants. In a brick and mortar school, students discuss topics and issues with peers of roughly the same learning background. In a MOOC, however, students discuss topics and problems they face during the course with a MASSIVE online community that ranges from high school students to PhDs. This true mixture of abilities and backgrounds diversifies more than problematizes course participation.

As a result of course rigor and diversity, students will most likely be motivated to pursue their learning. This also results  in a more autonomous behavior. They will also be motivated because these courses give them a preview of what courses in higher education would be like, a life they are yearning to experience.

Two Paths to Make MOOCs Work for Students, Their School ….and Their Teachers?)

The way I see it is that students can enroll in a MOOC  and report back to their teachers and school or as course participants with their teachers.

The school can facilitate the former by allowing students choose their own MOOC. This is done after a close guidance by school administrators and teachers on the level and compatibility of each course with students’ abilities, learning backgrounds, and aspirations. This is an important phase as it will affect students’ ability to maintain their studies throughout the course duration and be engaged with it. Second, the school should require that each student report on their weekly activity within the course. A reflective log is the most advisable because it gives the school and teachers a comprehensive understanding on how and to what level students are engaged and are learning from the course. Finally, school should give students some extrinsic incentives, in addition to the already established intrinsic one,  to finish the course.

Another path can be teachers as MOOC participants with their students. Teachers can enroll in the course with their students. The benefits here are also great. Teachers can act as a additional facilitators in the online course guiding students on topics and discussing them with their students. Teachers can allocate classroom time, in addition to online participation, to discuss MOOC assignments, homework, and final test. This is a real shift in the teachers’ roles. Teachers become learner participants by helping students completing the course and being able to learn from them and from the course. Again, the school plays a major role here in facilitating such a shift in traditional education.

Of course, there will be some disadvantages for taking a MOOC for senior high school students, but these can be minimized with the help of the school, the teachers, and parents.

If we look at teaching and learning from a whole new perspective, we are seeing a paradigm shift from old schooling where teachers are knowledge containers ready to fill up (the seemingly) empty heads of students to schooling where everyone is a participant and everyone is accountable, where learning is what matters and not scores.

My goal is to pilot it this year with my students. I hope our school admin will be innovative enough to facilitate it 

I would love to hear you views about this topic. Do you think, given all what we know about MOOCs, that senior high school students would benefit from them? If so, what other suggestions would you make? What points above do you believe I should rethink?

ThinkwithGoogle published a study in 2011 on mobile user behavior. The study was mainly interested in understanding smartphone user behavior in terms of searching, purchasing, and media consumption. However, among the findings, the study reports that people use their mobile phones mostly at home (93%) and least at school (29%).

Mobile phones are ubiquitous, and are pervading more than ever. Students use them everyday in their lives to search, watch videos, play games, socialize, share, and collaborate. Students connect with others through their mobile phones at home, in restaurants, at social gatherings, in airports, and virtually everywhere, except at schools, the only place where learning should be supported using tools students use in their everyday life. Ironically, mobile phones are banned from most schools, except for very few insightful, innovative ones. And, even if they are implemented in schools, there are no clear policies or adequate training for teachers and learners to harness the power mobile technologies to support teaching and learning.

The report above however should be put in context of the research sample. The people samples used for this study range between 18 and 64 years. This means, that it studied mainly adults’ behavior in using smart phones, therefore showing perhaps unreliable statistics of mobile use at schools. However, this does not preclude the notion that schools must change to adopt innovative approaches to metaphorically break down the wall of the school with the outside world by using tools used in everyday life.

The whole report is embedded below.

You all remember the Jedis in Star Wars. They could move objects around easily using their brain power, or let’s just say their brain waves. Jedis have to train hard and long to concentrate their brain power on objects to move them. Not an easy feat, and not something possible in real life.

Meet Mindflex !! With Mindflex, you can become the Jedi you’ve always dreamed of.

Mindflex uses the latest technology to amplify your brain waves to control the vertical movement of a ball. Actually, your brain controls the air flow that moves the ball vertically. The more you concentrate, the more the air flow increases pushing the ball high.

Mindflex is  surprisingly advertized as a toy. If kids use it for play, then they are training their brains to control brain waves. Basically, there are five brain waves that our brains omit whilst doing a particular task.

• Gamma waves
  Higher mental activity, including perception, problem solving, fear, and consciousness
• Beta waves
  Active, busy or anxious thinking and active concentration, arousal, cognition
• Alpha waves
  Relaxation (while awake), pre-sleep and pre-wake drowsiness
• Theta waves (most children omit such waves)
  Dreams, deep meditation, REM sleep
• Delta waves
  Deep dreamless sleep, loss of body awareness

Based on the above brain wave categories, Mindflex helps players omit more Gamma and Beta waves. These are crucial for analytical thinking and concentration. Although, it cannot be directly linked to education, this type of concentration training helps shape students’ brain neurons and builds more synapses.

Mindflex also includes obstacles requiring the contestants control the air flow up and down to pass the ball through loop or up a pipe. This control that kids exert over their brains from relaxation (ball goes down) and concentration (ball goes up) can have great implications in shaping kids mindsets and make them agile in dealing with simultaneous or consecutive problems.

Below is the commercial video of Mindflex.

Go to Midflex to explore more.

What do you think? Can Mindflex be directly integrated in education? or is it an add-on that teachers could use with students in spare time to train their brains whilst having fun contesting against each other?

See on Scoop.it – Technology Enhanced learning


See on edudemic.com

See on Scoop.it – Technology Enhanced learning


See on edudemic.com

You’ve seen them everywhere, in malls, supermarket, on Pepsi cans and pizza cartons. QR codes hold double information more than a barcode. Therefore, they can hold a text, web link, contact address etc. In the past two years, educators have been finding interesting ways in integrate QR codes in their teaching practice. For example, have a look at the 50 Interesting ways to use QR codes to Support learning. Using QR codes stimulates students’ interests in ways you could never imagine possible. It gets them moving around the classroom and in school premises with exploration and anticipation in their minds.

When used with mobile dictionaries, QR codes can help students effectively learn and recycle vocabulary words . My reflection on one of my lessons using QR codes and mobile dictionaries is that they resulted in more vocabulary retention, motivation, and autonomy.

The Lesson

The lesson was a revision of vocabulary clusters (lexical sets) the students have acquired the previous academic year. One of the aims of the lesson was to recycle the students’ vocabulary before the sit for SAT.

You can download the lesson package to help you design your vocabulary lesson using QR codes and mobile dictionaries. (Click “file” then “download” to download the zip file)

Below is a slideshow of my students scanning QR code in the hallway, writing down the vocabulary, using mobile dictionaries to define the words, and then clustering them (dividing them into lexical sets).

What do you think of mobile learning using QR codes and mobile dictionaries so far? Do they hold promising potentials for student learning?

This blog post was already published on OnlineUniversities

Any company, organization, or individual hoping to take advantage of digital video to educate or entertain the populace or promote a product should have a video strategy in place before springing for the time and equipment involved. Educators, of course, are not exempt from the core tenets of solidifying a viable video strategy — especially when it comes to how exactly they plan to take advantage of everything the medium offers.

1. Online and open source:

   Because both the online and the open source movements within education have been enjoying steady growth, it behooves any adherents to fire up their cameras and film a few lectures or other helpful videos. Educators who upload for public consumption on a personal site, iTunes U, YouTube Education, or other hosting resource reach a range of students beyond their rosters. For plugged-in teachers hoping to extend their influence and bring knowledge to the world, or an exclusively digital classroom at the very least, videos add a more human element.

2. Accessibility:

   Incorporating videos into lessons offers a viable method for students with special needs, such as ADD/ADHD or conditions requiring home-bound stints, to retain and remember information. The medium makes for one more way to ensure all learners enjoy access to educational materials that meet their specific requirements. Just make sure to remember subtitles or transcripts for hearing-impaired students.

3. Archiving:

   Teachers who require their students to shoot videos might want to keep a digital archive of their work to show off to future classes. Or, of course, tracking their own creations for online, open source, or hybrid classrooms. For the older crowd needing to convert their educational VHS and DVD presentations to digital media, a video strategy ensures these materials make the transition from generation after generation of learners.

4. Visual learners:

   Some students just learn better when viewing animated diagrams, step-by-step how-tos, and other video lessons. A well-balanced classroom spreads things out across different styles, and creating short movies and lectures reaches out to those with a more visual outlook. Cobbling together a video strategy addresses the inherently diverse nature of students’ methods for soaking up information.

5. Greater classroom connectivity:

   Video conferencing with Skype and other VOIP services entices educators who want their students to tackle collaborative projects with counterparts from around the world. In fact, Skype itself provides its own social media site for teachers wanting to connect and set up everything from foreign language exchanges to group poems. It’s an engaging strategy opening up some amazing and unique opportunities that weren’t available a decade ago.

6. Low-cost field trips:

   Thanks to the recession, schools must watch on helplessly as their funding dissolves, which means their field trip budgets come up scant. But infusing video into the classroom transports students to notable sites around the world, with some museums even offering free virtual tours. All the benefits of exploring and experiencing sans the transportation and admissions fees! The principal will love you.

7. Video games:

   Video games are not the scourge society seems to enjoy painting them as — in fact, they actually possess some incredible educational benefits when wielded correctly. Immersive environments particularly engage digital natives, but even the FBI takes advantage of the technology for training its agents. Not every video strategy necessarily needs to think about the whys of Wiis, of course. But instructors might want to research the positives behind serious gaming and strongly think about introducing it into the syllabus.

8. Addressing absences:

   No matter who has to stay at home — teacher or student — pre-recording lectures, instructions, or assignments helps close up any gaps in lessons that result from absences. All video strategies, even the most rudimentary, should keep this not-so-little perk in mind. Learners experiencing prolonged illnesses or other situations requiring homebound education will especially appreciate not being left behind. Alternately, streaming video with Skype, Google Talk, or another VOIP provider works as a stellar alternative.

9. Supplementary materials:

   Snag Films, Hulu, and Documentary Heaven all stream free documentaries. And, of course, the Internet overflows with open source lectures from some of the world’s most prestigious institutions, like MIT, Stanford, and Yale. Take advantage of this rich bounty of educational delights to drive home points made in classroom lectures, or add to students’ overall knowledge of the subject at hand.

10. Nurture creativity:

    Long before digital video became a thing that existed, students shot videos as classroom assignments. There’s no reason now why this can’t continue! Rather than forcing paper after quiz after exam after worksheet, challenge them to share what they’ve learned creatively, through film they’ve shot and edited themselves. And with technology being what it is and everything, whipping up something awesome proves easier and faster than ever.

11. Digital literacy:

    Both students and educators alike benefit from building their digital literacy skills, regardless of whether or not they hope to share their videos online. With a working knowledge of computers, the Internet, and peripherals — not to mention how to operate and navigate them all safely and responsibly — such a desirable suite of abilities in countless industries today, getting learners familiar with the core tenets as early as possible proves a fruitful endeavor. Even the older set looking to score new jobs or simply keep their mind occupied can pick up a few things through video and other digital resources.

From: OnlineUniversities.com

Onlinecolleges has published a great inforgraphic guide for teachers who are still exploring the potential benefit of social media in education.

From: OnlineColleges.net