12 mongrels wanted: small group for those of no particular pedigree

Hello Belinda, mongrels being as we are it seems in the absence of the Alpha-Mongrel and by the force of our inclusive nature that 13 mongrels are better than 12 plus one stray. This is a MOOC after all:-)

On a related note, range of experience and its influence on the course is a problem for all institutions declaring themselves to be diverse–like schools. Most sort before they allow in and the notion that they arrive as some optimum balance of difference by choosing is absurd. Limits beget limits and there must be somewhere in the educational universe where the rule of intention is tipped on its head.

Hi Shuna, I quite agree with a lot of what you’ve said and this experience does seem to be a bit troublesome. I too feel slightly disoriented, but I’ve decided to just go with it and hopefully given time, I will feel a little more comfortable.

J.P. Gee (2007) writes about semiotic domains – environments which use multi-modal forms of information (word, image, sound, video etc) and which we as participants, therefore, have to learn to interpret effectively in order to make sense of things. So for me, this MOOC experience is more about learning how to think and behave within a different, non familiar context, than it is about the content, or tutor.

Thanks for the reply, both.

Dranners, I liked your idea about “learning how to think and behave within a different, non familiar context” – a MOOC is certainly a new experience for me….but then I thought… is it a non familiar context though?

I have been on Facebook since 2009, was an early Google+ adopter, and I also contribute to lots of different online forums through various web communities I’m in. I don’t feel overwhelmed by them in those places. I look at the various topics going on in the forums, and sometimes just read through what others have posted, but if the topic grabs me I’ll plunge in and add my tuppence ha’penny worth.

In fact I have the ‘My Fitness pal’ forums open on another tab at this moment and the way it is set up would be a great way to run this. You have your own ‘community’ where you have groups of ‘friends’ who get together and share stuff on a more personal level, building up relationships there and interacting on a daily basis (for doing small group activities) then the open forums where you can jump in and contribute to anything that catches your eye (for broader chat on specific topics where anyone can join in).

So I am used to contributing to forums, so although I’m new to MOOCs I’m not a newbie to online communities and so feel confident enough to comment that the way this one is set up isn’t really intuitive or well structured

– and also having had a browse round the ocTEL platform forum this morning it seems that we are actively being encouraged to find our own ways of forming meaningful communities rather than having ones imposed on us (half of me thinks that’s an easy cop out and half of me thinks we are being experimental lab rats to observe how we behave) – Jeesh I think I must be coming across as cynical there, but, hey, that’s what came up there, so must be a bit how I’m feeling. Actually, I think that when I feel confused I tend to get a bit bolshie, so my comfort zone boundaries must be being pushed (no bad thing).

So to what you said DoctorJen, after me saying that this would be a good place to chat, maybe it might be better to create a Facebook page for us, or somewhere that is better set up for forum chat, where we have our own little community of like minded souls?

On the other hand, that makes us more exclusive and takes us out of others being able to drop in and contribute, so maybe we’ll wait for the first week and see how it goes?

It appears from the way it’s set up that each week they will set up a new forum (at the moment we are in small groups in week zero.). Perhaps we could just have a new place each week? EG one of us posts ‘Mongrels week 1’ in next week’s forum – and we just have all of that week’s chat in that forum and then the next week we all congregate in ‘Mongrels week 2’ – how about that?

I also relate to both your final comments, Jen – what is learning? I imagine it’s a very individual experience and who can say what and when it happens? – so you’re not alone. And yes, I think that the way this seems to be panning out is that it is a huge facilitated sharing experience rather than a led course. In a way that’s quite exciting as I have often thought that the best part of any seminar or conference is always the bit where you get to chat with other practitioners and pick up great ideas and nuggets of wisdom from their experience, and pass on your own…

Which makes me think that I’ll end this long ‘stream of consciousness’ rambling (apologies, folks) by sharing with you the idea I saw elsewhere this morning that ‘the more you put in to it, the more you’ll get out of it’.

Looking forward to how the coming weeks pan out.

Cheers

Shuna

Think I might fit the bill too. This is my first MOOC, don’t really know what I’m doing yet so feeling my way. I think my first experience with TEL was probably in CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) labs whilst doing my first degree. Don’t remember anything about computers whilst I was at school – I think they were about the size of a whole room back then!

My background is in teaching Linguistics and English for Academic Purposes (EAP), but I’ve been in the professional development of teaching staff for about 6 years now (3 at Essex and nearly 3 at Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL). I love working with Moodle and am largely responsible for the site we use to support teaching staff on our PG Cert programmes. I love mastering new skills and learning about anything that can help me in my role (and which are also useful in life).

Since starting this course I have managed to put my first blog together – it’s not very interesting yet, but I hope to develop it further as I gain ideas from this course (hopefully).

Well, hope I can join this group; seems like it could be fun.

Best

Lynne

Wrote this earlier and want to send it. Sorry if it sounds stuffy–how I feel today.

How far outside the zone of the familiar can we go and still understand each other?

Art school does this by experimenting with other mediums to open other possibilities

for expression but this excursion into the unknown is tempered by being contained

witin the space and supportive presence of fellow students in “art class” and

constrained by an agreement to not make fun of each others’ clumsiness.
The fact that we don’t “know” each other and can still communicate with some ease

(and even admit to doubts) suggests we can work together outside the safety of our

crafted professional selves? Seems to me there is value in developing a literacy

that leaves doors open to the uncomfortable. This would be epecially needed in times

of change when struggling to contain everything within the familiar mutes its

potential and may kill it.
Having been in quite a few Connectivist MOOCs plus experience in my life tells me

that absence of contact with others stunts, delays or prevents understanding. What

we know is a useless absraction if we are unable to give and receive with some

gracefulness.
Can MOOCs build new knowledge? Not sure. Is there value in discussion what you don’t

know and does that make sense? Again not sure. A quote I read from Sigmund Freud

talked of “building out into the unknown” and every time I write it I feel

uncomfortable. We spend a lot of time at the college where I work discussing comfort

as an affordance of learning. Maybe we are misunderstanding learning?

Scott

I agree with Sharmina – I think we should decamp elsewhere pretty soon – Roger suggested setting up a Moodle page for us. I think that would be a good idea as we could have several discussion threads going, as suited us, and they are much easier to follow.

A also agree Sharmina, that the webinar wasn’t great. I didn’t actually sit in on it live as I was busy elsewhere, but I did look in on it later. I won’t be following them live as they seem to rely on Java and my husband won’t have it on the PC as its security has been heavily compromised and it downloads all sorts of malware with it.

However, I did see that they publish a 2 minute round up of the slides afterwards, with a brief voiceover. I also looked at the webchat script. That looked enough to get the gist of what was being discussed, although to be honest I’m still not sure where the 1:25 ratio came from nor what it related to – so the learning point was lost for me. 🙁