professornana (professornana) wrote,
professornana
professornana

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Brooms, not statements are for sweeping

The university is not immune against attacks by folks from the outside. Imagine my consternation when I read this piece about MOOCs (massive, open, online courses).
http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2013/04/the_four_lessons_i_learned_by_.html

I have taken a MOOC as well. And I teach in a totally online MLS program. So, I think I can see this from two very different sides. Let’s take a look at the “lessons” learned from taking one whole MOOC, shall we?

Lesson One: Professors need to start phasing out in-class lecturing now.

Guess what? Lectures take place in both MOOCs and traditional classes, folks. The MOOC I took operated like this: listen to a video lecture, take a quiz, listen to another lecture, anther quiz, more lectures, some online reading, a visit to a YouTube video, quiz. Then, some short essays graded by my classmates. So does the novelty of watching a lecture online make it better? Or is it not having to show up for a class and being able to watch the lecture within time frames make it more palatable? And, of course, this assumes (and you know what that makes us, right) that classes consist of lectures and that lectures are not valuable when you can be there to ask questions, etc. I do have some short videos and screenshots in my class. I rely also on short podcasts, readings from the textbook, and other methods for delivering instruction. I will spend these next few days sitting and listening to some of the leading experts talk to me in vast halls at the International Reading Association conferences. And I am psyched about that.

Lesson Two: For students taking a MOOC, self-motivation and self-discipline are even more important.

Self-motivation and self-discipline are not the sole domain of the MOOC. Even in an online class or a traditional course, these are important factors for success.

Lesson Three: MOOC students ought to think more carefully about what courses to take, and what they want to get out of them.

Well, I agree about taking courses depending on what you want to get out of them as far as MOOCs are concerned. Though I took a MOOC expecting to learn X and really that was NOT what was offered. Billed as an intro, it assumed too much knowledge on my part. It was frustrating. As for wanting to obtain an MLS, though, there is a scope and sequences that is planned and deliberated and revised. My colleagues and I sat last week all day in a meeting and talked about the tech components of our classes. What were we perhaps missing? Did the skills build with the course sequence? Was there perhaps some overlap that could be eliminated so that new components could be added? We do this often. And we have what we are calling MOOPDs (massive open online professional development) ready to launch on Web 2.0+ tools.

Lesson Four: Policymakers should stop subsidizing universities and start subsidizing education.

Where has this writer been living? Like K-12, the funding for universities has been decimated over many years. We are told to do more with less an to make up the funding shortages by increasing tuitions. Then, the exact same folks yell at us for tuition being so high it is preventing folks from obtaining a college education. They want designer degrees costing $10K. We spend lots of time trying to figure out how to do this impossible task.

Couple this with an article in Ed Week reporting that HS teachers believe they are preparing kids for college and college teachers do NOT agree (I have to do a separate post on this and I will) and you can see that there are tons of broom handlers out there making huge swaths of sweeping statements. These statements take what could be good topics for discussion and reduce them to A or B but not anything else. Sound familiar? This is just what CCSS uses in terms of tactics: sweeping statements abut kids not being ready for college or career so we need to FIX that.

Now, I make sweeping statements, too. Here is my favorite: Everyone needs to be a reader and a writer and a learner all her or his life. Here is another: Focus must be on the learner and her or his needs. Okay, I feel better. Now I think I will go take a broom to the cobwebs on the porch.
Tags: college, grrrr, moocs, sweeping statements
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