Sunday 3 April 2011

MobiMOOC 2 April - 14 May 2011

I signed up for this free MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) about mobile learning a few days ago, having seen a link during an #eltchat about the subject on Twitter on Wednesday evening. During the said chat, I felt like I was missing something - like I wasn't really part of the gang. I was ashamed of my own ignorance, so I decided to do something about it and registered for the course.

What on earth is a MOOC? This was my first question, so I turned to the oracle that is YouTube & found several videos including this one which gave me the answer:



Having established what a MOOC was, I now had to get to grips with what mlearning was. I lurked around the mobiMOOC wiki (http://mobimooc.wikispaces.com/a+MobiMOOC+hello%21) and the group discussion pages (http://groups.google.com/group/mobimooc?hl=en). I read all the information provided by the facilitators and the posts from course participants. And then came the revelation! I'm not as ignorant as I thought I was! Unfamiliar with the jargon certainly, but not totally clueless in reality.

You see, I already engage in mlearning every day. I just didn't know I was doing it! I use my mobile phone to talk, to send & receive messages, and to take photos which I sometimes use in class. I use my i-Pod Touch to access the internet via wi-fi, to manage my contacts and my diary, to keep notes, and to listen to podcasts and share them with my students. I use my laptop to do everything else, including to write my blog. All of these things, I now understand, are mlearning!

Forgive me for being a bit late to the party, but I'm here now and I won't be lurking behind the curtains any more! I'm starting to go through the course materials and following up on links provided by my fellow participants. I'm hugely encouraged by what I have seen so far and I'm really looking forward to being more actively involved over the next few weeks.

7 comments:

  1. Andrea, ciao!
    Thanks for sharing your first thoughts. Looking at what you are doing, I am sure you will come up with an interesting mLearning project.

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  2. Nice. You are right, I think. We do a lot of the "learning" without thinking about how things have changed or giving a name to it.

    I am "mobile learning" right now as I read your post on my phone and communicate with you on this blog.

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  3. Hi Andrea, learning has a broad meaning I see. Almost anything is learning. I like your books in the background picture of the blog.
    Do you not allow pingback in your blog? That would make comments easier.
    regards Jaap

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  4. Thanks for the comments - much appreciated!

    Jaap, - you will have to enlighten me - I did say I wasn't au fait with much of the jargon!! So, what is 'pingback' and how do I get it? See, I'm learning all the time!!

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  5. Pingback is a little trick your weblog will do for you.
    I do not know why your blog does not do the trick, maybe it is not activated?
    On Pingback is an explanation on Wikipedia.

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  6. In Blogger in the dashboard you could choose preferences / backlinks and choose not hide. In that place you will see a information link on backlinks.

    ReplyDelete