MOOC! by AJC1 Attribution-ShareAlike License

A bit before Christmas I signed up for #ETMOOC:

#etmooc, an open, online experience that is designed to facilitate & nurture conversations around the thoughtful integration of educational technology & media in teaching and learning.

from: Introduction to #etmooc | #ETMOOC

What is a MOOC

A massive open online course (MOOC) is a type of online course aimed at large-scale participation and open access via the web. MOOCs are a recent development in the area of distance education, and a progression of the kind of open education ideals suggested by open educational resources.

Though the design of and participation in a MOOC may be similar to college or university courses, MOOCs typically do not offer credits awarded to paying students at schools. However, assessment of learning may be done for certification.

from: Massive open online course – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I’ve mooced a little before

I at least started a few mooc-like and other online learning things last year:

• At about this time a year ago I participated in Ed Tech Creative Collective a mini-mooc organised by Colin Maxwell.
• I dropped in and out of DS106 throughout last year mostly in the Camp Magic MacGuffin season.
• I also started the Mechanical MOOC (A Gentle Introduction to Python) but only lasted the first two weeks.
• I did some of codeyear through codeacedemy, although they seem to have lost some of my achievements.
• Finally I seem to have picked up a few badges to see what that was like.

I found it quite difficult to stick to these ‘courses. ds106 and edtechcc being the easiest to hang in due to the social elements. The MechanicalMooc did have social stuff hooked up but just keeping up with the lectures and exercises took up more time than I had.

I was releaved to see this tweet from the course organiser:

@camaxwell @johnjohnston There are different ways to participate – even if you want to dip in once in a while, feel free to register.

—Alec Couros (@courosa) December 17, 2012

What I am hoping to learn

Apart from the Topics & Schedule it looks like #etmooc with have a few valuable experiences:

• There is a #etmooc Google Community where folk are introducing themselves, I’d kind of forgotten about Google plus, but this combined with a Scottish Education – Google+ group and a new iOS app will give an opportunity to look at Google+. I find it a lot easier to evaluate tools when using them for a real purpose. After the edtechcc course I understood a bit more about facebook groups. (I still do not love facebook but can see how folk would find it useful).
• Alan Levine is helping organise the course, he is blogging how he is building the blog hub using FeedWordPress ( Building the ETMOOC Blog Hub (part 1) and Building the ETMOOC Blog Hub (part 2)). I am really excited about FeedWordPress, Charlie has built it into glew blogs and I really hope it is going to be available to Scottish pupils and teachers as glow evolves. (Still waiting for an announcement if we get to keep wordpress or move to sharepoint blogs).
• There are a ton of folk signed up to etmooc, some I know, some I’ve heard of and some not I’ve already read some interesting stuff in the google group looking forward to lots of serendipity.

Getting Started

Hopefully I’ve fill in the form correctly and this post will get pulled into the ETMOOC Blog Hub | everything everyone publishes about ETMOOC. Next up is creating an introduction post:

Create an introductory post, video, podcast, slideshow, etc., of yourself. Tell us a little bit about yourself – perhaps, where you’re from, what you do, or what you want to be when you grow up – and let us know what you’d like to gain from #etmooc?

and the first #etmooc T0S1: Welcome & Orientation on Blackboard Collaborate. Not sure how that is going to work in with my time and work schedule, I hope they are recorded.