Wednesday, July 30, 2008

A venture into open learning

I've been thinking about my ongoing education recently, and in particular searching the web for learning specific to pedagogical application of ICTs. It has disappointed me that such courses are rare in Australia. I have fortunately stumbled across 2 open courses being offered by generous individuals. The first of these is Facilitating Online Communities conducted by Leigh Blackall of Otago Polytechnic. This has spiked my interest as it is based within WikiEducator which promises free e-learning content. At this point there seems to be about 70 people enrolled which will no doubt encourage wide ranging discussion. I am concerned about keeping up with the input from so many people, but I will develop a system.

The second open course I've found is the Connectivism and Connective Knowledge course offered by George Siemens and others. There are currently 1200 people signed up to participate in this course. How it progresses will be interesting.

So I've set myself new challenges. I hope my work life will permit these to occur.

2 comments:

Joao Alves said...

Hi Shane,
You're right. There are not many examples like these of Wikieducator and the people who are running it, like Leigh, Wayne and others. I am also involved with the Connectivism and Connected Knowledge course facilitated by George Siemens and Stephen Downes. I am the translator for the Portuguese language of this course.
I'm very excited about the FOC course. I am sure it will be a rewarding experience and I hope that I can keep up with it.

Unknown said...

Joao,
I believe the "keeping up" will also be the challenge for me. The Connectivism course will be interesting to be a part of, last report I saw was over 1000 participants!!