So I had thought that one of the solutions to focussing and managing the mass of input in a MOOC was to create more manageable sub groups. After sorting and reading through a number of posts and conversations, I’m now thinking that providing or making available a really helpful guidebook for those who are new travelers in the MOOC universe. A guide for thoese who don’t want to go to a new place without some sort of preparation. What would go insuch a guidebook? My previous post point to helpful starts and since then I was directed to a a guide for participants at ETMOOC.
I also was reading a post by a colleague of mine, Peter Taylor, today on how to make space for relationships which also seems part of the solution and shares some elements in common with Cormier, Ilzel and Chan’s recommendations. Taylor speaks to links between focused conversations as related to the ladder of influence. While these are envisioned as face-to-face conversations the steps also apply within a virtual ecology. The steps include:
- Objective (getting the concrete facts, things observable by all)
- Reflective (eliciting feelings and associations)
- Interpretive (considering the meaning and significance)
- Decisional (formulating a decision or an action)
Finally, Andrea Carrasco shared a Disney videon called Paperman on the EDCMOOC Facebook group page. The animations definitely echos Inbox from the Week 1 clips. But it also speaks to the larger experience of communicating in the MOOC. You put your communications (paper airplanes) out there. They don’t seem to reach an audience. But through the force of a massive communication network the ideas and concepts find a away to aggregate and bring people and ideas together. So perhaps trusting in the openness of such a large learning experience and resisting the urge to control is really what is necessary.
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