Overview
This week has been a little easier to handle than previous
weeks –perhaps less to digest.
The Opportunity of Abundance
From “The Opportunity of Abundance” with Brian O’Leary I learned that the publishing business in the USA and
probably worldwide – is in turmoil with the advances being made by
digitalization. Here in Zimbabwe
publishing is not big business and is largely confined to newspapers. The Zimbabwe Independent (newspaper) is
having its problems. Probably more
because of the depressed Zimbabwean economy than the technical revolution. But they have to publish online to be
visible, yet they obviously don’t make much money publishing online. Advertising is limited. So they delay the digital copy by a few days
in an effort to get readers to buy the hard copy. The hard copy has a lot more information than
the digital. The Zim Independent is
caught between a rock and a hard place – in order to survive they have to make
money to pay the staff and the other overheads.
Yet in order to survive they also have to be online.
Openness: Decoupling the Future to Radically Improve Access to Education With David Wiley
I have ‘met’ David Wiley before on a previous MOOC so much of this
presentation was not new to me. But it
did reinforce his views. One question
which Wiley raised but never answered is that college fees in the US have risen
way above national inflation levels. Why
are college fees rising so steeply against standard inflation?
It was worth visiting Wiley’s website.
I sent him an e-mail asking him to answer this question. So far no response!
Perhaps the most valid comment from this video: “The future is already
here – it just isn’t evenly distributed yet”
Knowledge Unlatched
We were introduced to ‘Knowledge Unlatched’ through two
short videos that were easy to follow. The principle behind the movement is Libraries
pay a Title Fee to an author. The Title
Fee is fixed. The more libraries that
join Knowledge Unlatched, the more shared the costs and the lower the overall
cost.
Readings
The readings focused on changes happening but not yet
solidified in the publishing of scholarly articles and then a short discussion
on MOOCs – the past and the possible future.
The most interesting discussion was brought to me by a fellow-student - LauraF888.
In the discussion she referred us to http://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/moocs-failure-solutions
which is a recent (7 November 2014) critique of the MOOC phenomenon. It brought to mind my first e-learning
experience which was on a VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) with ILM
(Institute of Leadership and Management). Before we started the organisers told us what
was needed to successfully learn online.
So for the benefit of my two readers here’s the requirements as so succinctly
stated by ILM: -
Successful
distance learning, particularly online, requires the
learner to have certain characteristics, in order to fully engage in the
learning process. These are:
1. academic and emotional maturity
2. specific goals
3. the ability to work alone
4. the capacity for self-starting
5. self-understanding and self-motivation
6. persistence
7. patience
8. self-confidence
9. reading and writing ability;
10. Contacts who can help with content problems; and
an academic support system (at home and at work).
I have found these characteristics to be largely correct and
I recall discussing them with a fellow-student in China on my first MOOC – E-Learning
and the Digital Space. She suggested
that ALL learners in whatever environment needed all these
characteristics. I argued that a lot of
students (in classrooms) do not have these characteristics and the work of the
teacher very often, is to instill them. This
led to another discussion which is not important here.
But what is important is that those who enroll on MOOCs need
these characteristics to succeed and when they don’t have them, they are likely to drop
out. Perhaps what is needed to keep them on
track is a mentor.
Will the MOOC die a natural death because it is not
fulfilling the perceived objectives of the organisers? Remembering that the perceived objectives of
the organisers is to bring education to the ‘developing world’ and to those who
‘need it most’
That remains to be seen. For the
moment there are still thousands of people enrolling on MOOCs from all over the
world and when the success rate (completion rate) is only 10%, when 100,000 people
enroll and 10% succeed, 10% translates into 10,000 – a large number of better
educated people.
Final Thought
As a final thought: I
am not sure who put this in my head but it has great significance
“The quality of education depends on the depth of mental
processing”
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