There is a lot of talk about Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and how these are revolutionising university education by opening up university courses to anyone throughout the world. Recently on a LinkedIn forum I belong to, someone asked the question "What will happen when MOOCs are used in High School education as well?" And this got me thinking about "Will MOOCs spell the end for traditional teachers?" I don't think it will...
Technology moves in mysterious ways! We are naturally 'scared' or at least wary of technology and it's ability to replace us. i-Robot (the movie starring Will Smith) is my favourite movie which tells of how robots take over the world, go mad and starting shooting everyone. Luckily Will Smith's character is there to save the day, make friends with the robots and bring order to the world, old style. Many teachers cling to 'the old ways' in order to try to keep the status quo because, partly, they are scared of being replaced. "It's how we've always done it so it's how we'll carry on" they say, however, this isn't the world our students will grow up in.
Unlike our generation, our children and students are unlikely to live in a world where they go to university once at the beginning of their careers and then that is all they need to know. Oh no, their continued 'lifelong' learning is going to ultimately be more important than a few years at the beginning to get them going. We owe it to our students to prepare them for this. MOOCs (or something similar) might turn out to be the single most important way that people learn later in life.
So what are the important skills that students will need which will enable them to take part in MOOCs?
Technology moves in mysterious ways! We are naturally 'scared' or at least wary of technology and it's ability to replace us. i-Robot (the movie starring Will Smith) is my favourite movie which tells of how robots take over the world, go mad and starting shooting everyone. Luckily Will Smith's character is there to save the day, make friends with the robots and bring order to the world, old style. Many teachers cling to 'the old ways' in order to try to keep the status quo because, partly, they are scared of being replaced. "It's how we've always done it so it's how we'll carry on" they say, however, this isn't the world our students will grow up in.
Unlike our generation, our children and students are unlikely to live in a world where they go to university once at the beginning of their careers and then that is all they need to know. Oh no, their continued 'lifelong' learning is going to ultimately be more important than a few years at the beginning to get them going. We owe it to our students to prepare them for this. MOOCs (or something similar) might turn out to be the single most important way that people learn later in life.
So what are the important skills that students will need which will enable them to take part in MOOCs?
- reading - Contrary to popular belief, the internet does not kill the need to read. If anything the World Wide Web requires that students do a lot more reading because of the sheer quantity of available material. True, video is becoming important and much more accessible and MOOCs seem to use it a lot, but in my experience there is still a LOT of reading to be done. So let's not drop the ball on that.
- information literacy - I cringe when my own primary aged children come home with tasks like "Go and research (a country) or (a famous character)". Firstly they don't actually know how to do a reliable search beyond typing the words into Google. Secondly, they are not ready at age 7, 8 , 9 or even 10 to understand much of what they are reading and also figure out if that information is at all reliable or useful! Students need to become discerning readers and understand how to use the information they have been given in a MOOC or in any other online context, before that information becomes useful to them. MOOCs have the advantage of having materials chosen by the course designers, but further research for assignments are often needed. Let's make sure they know how to do this properly.
- time management - Anyone who has ever done a course by correspondence, whether online or not, will tell you that finding the time (and discipline) to sit down and actually do the reading or watching or whatever else needs to get done, is the toughest part of the whole process. If we are using MOOCs in class or developing our own blended learning opportunities, let's make sure we keep setting those deadlines and having consequences for not meeting them. It will train our students in the art of managing their time.
So what MOOCs are available for Senior School students?
A couple of my students have enrolled in MOOCs which teach them programming skills. Many of the larger universities are offering these courses, but I hadn't realised how many MOOCs there are specifically targetted at 'K-12' or Senior School students.
A good list can be found at http://moocs.co/K-12_MOOCs.html and I will review some of these in a future post to see which ones I like the best.
A couple of my students have enrolled in MOOCs which teach them programming skills. Many of the larger universities are offering these courses, but I hadn't realised how many MOOCs there are specifically targetted at 'K-12' or Senior School students.
A good list can be found at http://moocs.co/K-12_MOOCs.html and I will review some of these in a future post to see which ones I like the best.
