Laboratorio di tecnologie Internet per la scuola: #LTIS13

Internet Technologies for Education

April – June 2013

A cMOOC led by Andreas R. Formiconi

IUL - Italian University Line

WHO & WHERE: The Institution

IUL - Italian University Line, http://www.iuline.it (A partnership of 4 Universities: Milan (Milano Bicocca), Florence, Palermo, Catania, in collaboration with INDIRE, an Institution that is part of the Ministry of Education and is concerned with the quality of the school system, innovation, research and documentation.)

Offering Graduation & Master online courses to teachers.

Giorgio Federici: DirectorAndreas R. Formiconi : professor at IUL; Associate Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Florence.

www.iuline.itEmail:cmooc@iuline.it

What is a cMOOC?

C = connectivist

cMOOCs = discursive communities creating knowledge together

[Martin Lugton, http://reflectionsandcontemplations.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/what-is-a-mooc-what-are-the-different-types-of-mooc-xmoocs-and-cmoocs/

]

481 registrations

Massive OPEN Online Course

• OPEN to whoever happens to come by and wants to have a try

• OPEN because problems are posed and solutions given freely among participants

• OPEN because it encourages peer-to-peer tuition

• OPEN because the use of open-access software is implemented (PiratePad, NoBlogs etc)

Stated goals…

• learning to live in cyberspace

• learning to learn and teach in cyberspace

• learning to create a learning and professional training community

• bridging the technological gap between old and new generations

• assisting final-year high-school students in choosing a teaching career

THE VILLAGE

The metaphor:

Not this…

“something we build together by discovering as we go what is the next useful thing to do, in everybody's interest - the single person's as well as the community's” A. Formiconi

Not this….

Tent camping in New Hampshire, from www.foresthistory.org

…..but more like this:

Then he expected us to…

build houses

build roads

start visiting

plan amenities

start various activities

In the form of…

BLOGS

WEB FEED AGGREGATOR

SOCIAL BOOKMARKING

COLLABORATIVE WRITING

whatever…..

PLAN vs CREATIVE CHAOS

SUCCESSIVE TASKS ?

The PLAN led to….

• 13 successive tasks

• 42 posts

• 3587 comments

• 23 video tutorials

While from CREATIVE CHAOS…

…5 groups of people emerged, who decided to do something together in the future

Our teacher called these activites…

STREAMS

A course about TEACHING

through explicit description of what he was going to do and why

The power of METAPHORS

Why do we need metaphors? Because education has lost its original nature, which is that of a mission, and its

purpose, which consists of producing a cultural vision.

“In Italy education at large is suffering from overuse of formality and bureaucracy; it's a frozen system tending to mechanically perpetuate itself, while what education needs is the ability to become a LEARNING ORGANIZATION, adapting to the ever faster changes in our world.Metaphors, tales, unexpected turns are used to hook students, hold them and possibly launch them into new worlds. If they don't turn back and flee, if they insist in spite of difficulties, then maybe they needed to be introduced into these worlds...” A. Formiconi

KEY CONCEPTS

• FLEXIBILITY … SERENDIPITY• FOLLOW your INTUITION: learning to let go of things

and follow one's intuition “Knowledge and competence don't stem from handbooks but from exploration and daily use” A. FORMICONI

• LEARNING is about GROWING, rather than TAKING SUCCESSIVE STEPS

• EVERYBODY at THEIR OWN PACE

KEY CONCEPTS

CO-TEACHING CO-LEARNING

TAKING CARE OF THE COMMUNITY

KEY CONCEPTS

• SHOWING ONE’S MISTAKES: mistakes teach!• LEAVING TECHNOLOGY ASIDE when it is

necessary to ponder and reflect• LISTENING: “listening is important, and when you

LISTEN, then you have to adapt to demands most students make, otherwise it isn't real listening. So maybe the route can change, but my target stays the same, my target is very clear to me” A. Formiconi

• REVISING and WAITING, so that nobody is left behind

The cMOOC as an experiment about

LEARNING“The aim is bridging the gap between teachers and the new technological generations of students, not just by showing how tools (devices, software) work – the classical training -, but by immersing the teachers in the same environment the students experience, so that they can discover things by themselves.

It's about learning by experiencing. It's about moving to cyberspace and having a good look around, rather than being instructed.”

“Mass university... traditional mass lectures don't work very well. This is an experiment about building communities so that mass classes might be more efficient.” A. Formiconi

“How can a workshop with 400 students be managed? The central role can't be the teacher's, with the students patiently queuing to get their share of attention...” A. Formiconi

The problem of TIMING

SURVEYS

SILENCE & WAITING

At the end of the course….

Posts published on the blog 2231

Participants who joined the course group in Diigo 83

Tags produced 990

Bookmarks produced 457

50 participants willing to pay to receive University Credits for the course, after assessment by prof. Formiconi on the basis of practical participation to the activities suggested.

“A COURSE IS A STORY that the teacher tells. But in THIS kind of course, the teacher's story gradually fades in the

background as the students' stories slowly emerge...”