Personal Blogs

I love a MOOC, but I start a lot more than I finish.  Although with my mindfullness hat on "thats OK, just notice".  I guess I get out what I need and then I move on to something else.  Thats only partially to do with the over scheduling of my life because as I have come to realise recently, although I over schedule and try and fit too many things into too little time I also crush an awful lot of candies!

Me and the MOOC

I work in an area that doesn't stand still.  I often envy people teaching other subjects like history, maths etc because for all they complain about changing syllabuses and changing curriculum these changes surely are just reinventions of the wheel.  In the subjects I teach the changes are to the materials as new technologies become more prominent.  I'm an ICT teacher so the software gets updated.  I'm a Computer Science teacher so new languages get introduced (and being NO programmer I have a LOT of learning to do!).  I'm a media studies teacher and that doesn't stand still for a second - in fact its a bugger to teach given that social media is increasingly important and banned in school!  I'm a business studies teacher - another fast paced, ever changing environment the small businesses we look at used to be a lot of white van men and now include a huge variety of mumtrepreneurs.  

So the MOOC is my friend.  I can learn a new language (last year Python).  I can learn a new skill, I can keep up with changes in SEO and developments in software and I can even get myself certified (have I mentioned that I'm a Google Certified Educator lately?) yes I used Google's MOOC and paid extra for the certification.  I also learn about pedagogy, classroom management, a new tool every week and so much more.  All using MOOC's and a raft of OER.

I also keep running away from teaching and doing supply.  Believe me OER is my friend here - and I love the challenge but when I take a medium/long term role I will nip on a MOOC to bring my skills up to date.

As for my personal life, I run a small business or  two, do social media marketing for another business and I'm busy busy with Rotary.  All of which require learning, developing, growing and moving ever forward.  Rotary being a prime example - the typical Rotarian is seen as "Male, pale & stale" and this is a stereotype we are trying to break - through our marketing and social media presence.  Another area I look to MOOC's for information on.

My Learners & the MOOC

I have had to teach coding in the past year as I was learning it myself.  So I directed my learners to codeacademy where I directed them through the Python course and I am pleased not only with their progress but with the extra work some have done outside of my classroom.  In fact a few learners have also learned additional languages from this MOOC.  A real success and it has saved me from having to teach a language which I am still learning.

Always one to share my choice of licence is attributable, non-commercial, share alike.  Whilst I'm totally happy for anyone to use and modify my work I want credit and I don't want anyone else making money from it.  Same license as Wikipedia.

Also - mostly to remind myself here are Wiley's 5R's - which pretty much fit my ideal of sharing.

David Wiley (2007) has been one of the key thinkers and drivers in open content, and he proposes the 5Rs of Reuse[Tip: hold ⌘ and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)]:

Very interesting stuff - I started by reading the Anderson presentation and I was interested in the different social interactions of OER's, although I was also laughing out loud (Cafe Nero this time) when the slides mentioned some of the tech - Google Wave hahahaha.  This was the slide which struck me

The idea that the individual is part of so many wholes whilst still remaining an individual is to me a true marvel of the digital era.  We have become ever better connected without losing our sense of self.  Indeed we have found greater opportunities to educate and be educated through networks, groups and collectives.

My second choice was to look a the video ^{(always one for the easy option)}  and I was very pleased to find a TED talk - one of my favourite choices of OER, as they are concise and well explained nuggets.  I was nodding along with this one (Its OK - being in London people are used to nutters) as it perfectly described my own view of education and resources.  Education IS sharing and holding onto intellectual property is a selfish act.  Just be nice, open and share on the biggest scale you can.  I have published so many resources to the web and continue to do so and everything I publish is gifted to the world through new media and technology. When I first started teaching I made my resources into a website, now I publish them to a wiki and more and more I move towards videos as a delivery method which also get hosted and distributed to the global audience of YouTube users.

In fact it fits my favourite philosophy of "Just be nice"