http://x28newblog.blog.uni-heidelberg.de Now with Comments and Fulltext Feed Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:25:22 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en On the new MOOC "Connectivism and Connective Knowledge" (CCK12), there seems to be an exercise for our "crap detector" going on (I like this term by @hrheingold): In today's Daily, there were two big mistakes aggregated from the same author -- at least two, then I skipped ... http://x28newblog.blog.uni-heidelberg.de/2012/02/03/cck12-crap-detector-exercise/ Do open space participants either consent or vote with their feet/ walk away? If the open space is a group, this is probably true. In a group, the shared goal of collaboration generates the pressure that everybody has to participate and decide. With shudder I remember my schooltime ... http://x28newblog.blog.uni-heidelberg.de/2012/01/21/change11-open-space-binary-participants/ I am confused. In the beginning, connectivism was considered on three layers: neural, conceptual, and social/ external. While the latter, topmost, layer has become increasingly popular, the lower layers seem to fade away from researchers' interest. Recently even Stephen seemed to focus on just the social layer: ... http://x28newblog.blog.uni-heidelberg.de/2012/01/10/change11-lower-layers-of-connectivism/ This is interesting: Repurposing morphs into creativity. Repurpose is a powerful concept. It allows to pick up the emphasis on one thing and utilize it for the emphasis on another thing which is somehow related to the original thing. So the emphasis on repurposing itself can be (creatively) repurposed into the emphasis on creativity. Can "repurpose" even be repurposed ... http://x28newblog.blog.uni-heidelberg.de/2011/12/22/repurpose/ Sebastan Fiedler picked another great quotation. E. Matusov: "... dialogue, nirvana, happiness, and learning (and teaching) are not goal-directed activities. They cannot be designed. ..." I want to remix this with a link to Stephen's blog post contrasting Transmission and Induction, and with a quote from "The Master and his Emissary" ... http://x28newblog.blog.uni-heidelberg.de/2011/12/16/learning-as-by-product/ Connectivism talks about conceptual connections of varying strength, and learning involves gradually strengthening connections. I visualize these slowly growing connections like ridges emerging from the ground, and I think the time lapse video of ebbing tide shows them nicely. http://www.flickr.com/photos/suraky/4230976574/ http://x28newblog.blog.uni-heidelberg.de/2011/12/05/change11-slow-learning-visualized/ Course facilitators and critics are unsettled about the increasing drop-out rate in MOOCs. Being far from active this time myself, I want to share my view of the critiques summarized by Jenny. The drop rate -- comparing the thousands of registered users with the few visible participants who regularly ... http://x28newblog.blog.uni-heidelberg.de/2011/11/27/change11-decreasing-engagement-in-moocs/ I am not yet ready for the examples required by Eric Duval's two challenge questions. Instead, I still think about Jenny's question whether "leveraging abundance is desirable and will lead to better learning". I think the main point for abundance is that it may foster diversity (1), ... http://x28newblog.blog.uni-heidelberg.de/2011/11/17/change11-abundance-for-diversity-and-breadth/ In a previous discussion about the massiveness of MOOCs, Jenny considered two types of diversity: "I'm wondering whether diversity should have two lines? One for people and one for resources -- when thinking of course design?" Can lacking massiveness be somehow compensated? For example, can the consequential lack of ... http://x28newblog.blog.uni-heidelberg.de/2011/10/31/change11-massiveness-and-diversity/ Responding to Rita Kop who said in a comment at Tony Bates' blog: "Perhaps the decision to leave out the learning management system from the Change MOOC has not been a wise one" I once supported this decision and I still do. The Moodle forums feature is very much in ... http://x28newblog.blog.uni-heidelberg.de/2011/10/28/change11-moodle-forum-or-grsshopper/