Thank You, #EDCMOOC & Making My Digital Artifact, Learning Is An Adventure

Thank You, #EDCMOOC & Making My Digital Artifact, Learning Is An Adventure

by Justine C. Tajonera

My #EDCMOOC (eLearning and Digital Cultures Massive Open Online Course) posts spring from my participation in the course offered for free by the University of Edinburgh via Coursera.org.

I had a lot of fun making my final assignment for my EDCMOOC (eLearning and Digital Cultures Massive Open Online Course) class. I combined other attempts at making a digital artefact into this final digital artefact and I was struck by my husband's reaction to it. I asked him if it was good, "Hon, do you think this will pass?" And he answered me with what I think this whole class was about: "Did you do it for the grade? Or did you do it to learn?"

Learning = Hard-earned Joy

What an amazing question! It captured the heart of learning. Many times in traditional school I did things for the grade. But there were other moments in school where I truly enjoyed, where I truly learned. And I would do those courses or classes again just for the sheer joy. In fact, I remember summers where I would glory in all the free time I had to read, just read. I would look up new words in the dictionary and I would just keep going. Those were magical days. I realize that real learning is like that. You keep going, you keep pushing at the edges because you just want to: curiosity, passion, enjoyment. I surely don't want to rob my kids of the pure enjoyment of learning. Of course, it's not all enjoyment. There was a degree of difficulty I had to overcome. And "getting it" is also a kind of hard-earned bliss that can't be matched by treats or novelties.

And that was what I got at the end of the course: a hard-earned joy. I remember those frustrating nights when one video just took forever to load and I was getting bleary-eyed with sleep deprivation. I remember trekking to a nearby coffee shop just to get at least three hours of concentration to write my blogs about the course. I remember being overwhelmed by the sheer numbers in the class and the list of tools for creating the digital artifact. I remember moments of insight that I couldn't help but turn to my husband and share what I just learned from a video or from an online essay. It was all worth it.

Going Digital With Our Homeschool Curriculum

Just yesterday, we attended a family convention conducted by the provider of our homeschool curriculum, The Master's Academy, and they introduced a new pilot project called Genyo.com.ph, an online supplemental course that includes five core subjects including our mother language, Filipino (this is something that's really hard to find online). But by then...I had already discovered IXL.com and Salman Khan's absolutely wonderful Khan Academy. My son is already enrolled in IXL and he just loves earning his medals and achieving mastery with each subject. He has a love for Math that I never had.

I think Genyo.com.ph was introduced to us just in time, especially after having attended this EDCMOOC. I could look at it all within the context of what we had just digested. We signed up right away and I'm excited to try it out with my son.

Not For The Grade But For The Learning

Taking this course has really challenged my idea of how to check for learning. Assessment and test scores have their place but they are not the be-all and end-all of learning. Far from it. Now I see that there are other innovative ways of engaging kids and really helping them learn. Now I see the importance of creating portfolios (the term that our homeschool provider uses....which is a different term for artifacts). These are project opportunities that can combine several subjects so that the student can really see how all of them can be combined for something that is important to him or to the community. Projects put things in perspective and holistically integrates different subjects into a common theme. I think this is more important and a better gauge of analysis and creation than just pure grades.

Purposeful, imaginative learning

I thought that the exploration of posthumanism and transhumanism was really important in coming back to a key concept: challenging humanity's purpose. It's not an easy question to answer. It takes whole lifetimes. It is an ongoing project and it is far from over. It is something that gives context as well to the way I am teaching my kids. It's good to always put the background of purpose in everything we do. What's the point? That's something that I want my kids to learn to ask as well.

What will get us through this shared project is imagination. That's why I really value stories. I especially loved the stories that came out in the films and Sci Fi books (I downloaded some as additional reading after the class). The best of stories are never didactic and never have a hard edged "lesson" to learn. The best of stories help us ask questions and imagine scenarios. The best of stories help us make sense of who we are...and points us to our own stories and perspectives, fortifying them or challenging them. This is what I can give to my kids: the love of searching for more stories, reading them and making their own.

I really loved this class and I will miss it.

But wait. There are still a lot of MOOCs waiting. Onwards then!

Update as of March 5, 2013: I am signed up with the CS50 Introduction to Computer Science of Harvard (EDX). I have also signed up to two more classes on Coursera: 1) Design, Creation of Artifacts in Society (University of Pennsylvania) and 2) Children Acquiring Literacy Naturally (UC Santa Cruz).  Looking forward to blogging my updates on this journey.

#EDCMOOC Week 1: Appreciating a Polyvalent and Complex View of Technology

#EDCMOOC Week 1: Looking To The Past
Appreciating a Polyvalent and Complex View of Technology

My #EDCMOOC (eLearning and Digital Cultures Massive Open Online Course) posts spring from my participation in the course offered for free by the University of Edinburgh via Coursera.org.

by Justine C. Tajonera

I signed up for the eLearning and Digital Cultures course because I am a mother coming to grips with how to bring up and educate my children in today's world. My husband and I are currently homeschooling our eldest boy (six years old). My husband and I came to this decision because we saw the benefits of real learning, discovery and one-on-one guidance (I finally got to see the statistics behind this in Daphne Koller's talk on TED:



I'm eternally grateful to the kind soul who posted the link to the 10 Best Talks on eLearning from TED). We experimented and attended talks on homeschooling here in Manila and we chose a program that's had thirteen years of experience and research. Apart from the textbooks, though, we felt that we had a great resource in the Internet. Just this first week of EDC was a great revelation to me. Despite the amount of information available, I never really focused on eLearning for home schooling purposes (this, despite the fact that I've already taken a course on Sustainability offered by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign via Coursera.org). My eyes have been opened. I'm starting to see that we made the right choice. And not only that, we have a limitless resource in our hands.

Starting from a Perspective: Utopia and Dystopia

source: en.wikipedia.org

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the short films from our Week 1 Resources. The question that was asked: There are many utopian and dystopian stories about technology told in popular films from Metropolis to the Matrix. Can you think of an example and describe or share it in the discussion board, on your blog, or on Twitter?

There are many examples of dystopias (and utopias that are actually dystopias in disguise) but not very many utopias, I think. It brought me back to one of the utopias that I cherished from childhood: Twilight Zone's Episode 17b, Quarantine (1986). It tells the story of Matthew Foreman who wakes up to a different society, one that he mistakenly calls "backward" until he finds out that they have achieved "biological gestalt," a world where "technology" has been replaced by awareness and spiritual growth and where the organic replaces the mechanical. I won't go into the plot, here, but I became aware of my own biases when it comes to "technology" and "progress." I enjoyed that particular TV episode because it paints the picture of a world that I want to live in, a world where diversity, harmony, spirituality and living with the earth (instead of using it and depleting it) are of utmost value.

Detecting Biases and Perspectives

Coming from there, I realize that I have a suspicion of technology. I won't beat myself up over it. I think it's very normal to come from somewhere. Reading Dahlberg's paper on Internet Research: Towards a Non-Reductionist Approach, I see the value of not just focusing on one perspective of technology.

Another question asked: Which of these perspectives (uses determination, technological determination, or social determination), do you lean towards in your understanding of the relationship between technology and pedagogy? Can you point to instances in society or in your own context where this stance is necessary or useful?

I now see that I was leaning towards a uses determination. I think that the user ("I") is perfectly in control of technology. But that is not really the case. I think it's useful to have this perspective up to a certain point only...maybe as a parent who can direct my children's interaction with technology...and the way technology is used for learning purposes. But I also see how I need to be aware of the other aspects of technology (it's own structure and the way it was, and continues to be, created and organized by society) for me to really tap into the opportunities that it presents.

Education, Big Business and "The New World"

John Daniel's paper, "Technology is the Answer: What was the Question? "  reminded me what education is for: learning, discovery, and eventually, contribution.

Using Daniel’s four “b”s - bias, bull, breadth and balance - what observations can you make about his utopian arguments about education? What currency do they continue to have in this field?

I noticed that Daniel is leaning towards "progress" and that it is just a matter of finding the right tools, choosing the right vendors. There is an equation in his argument made up of access, quality and cost. The idea is to increase the access, increase the quality and lower the cost. But of course, it is not as simple as that. Based on what I've read from Will Richardson's book, Why School? (TED book), maybe we don't even need reform, we need a drastically different way of seeing education as a whole.

I saw the same thing in Noble's Paper on Digital Diploma Mills: the Automation of Higher Learning which took a more negative approach.

Why does Noble say that technology is a ‘vehicle’ and a ‘disguise’ for the commercialization of higher education? How can we relate this early concern with commercialism to current debates about MOOCs, for example? And how are concerns about ‘automation’ and ‘redundant faculty’ still being played out today?

There is a bias here on economic determination. He is talking about how technology is controlled by commercial owners, by school administrations operating as businesses. There is much to be skeptical about when "big money" starts controlling the picture. However, I think it's also very extreme not to see how technology can serve the genuine learning and discovery of children. What is wrong with "automation" when, as Salman Khan (of KhanAcademy.org) points out, children can learn concepts when they can pause and repeat "lectures" (or explanations by a competent teacher) without any judgment? I think some of these concerns have been addressed by non-profit organizations such as Coursera.org and KhanAcademy.org.

Migration And Diversity

Reading Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants by Prensky, I became starkly aware of myself as a digital immigrant. I was fortunate (or unfortunate?) enough to see the actual day when there was no Internet and when there was Internet. I remember listening with incredulity as a schoolmate explained the Internet to me: it's open to everyone, it was developed by the U.S. military, but somehow it became mainstream, and you can find out absolutely anything because all the information stored on this super highway is available to anyone with a computer and a modem. I remember the thrill of hearing the modem connect because I was going to get some email. I remember learning how to text message (adapting from slow typing to typing while doing other things).

When reading this paper (Prensky), try to identify the strategies that Prensky uses to make his argument - how does the language he uses work to persuade the reader? Who are ‘we’ and who are ‘they’? What associations do you have with the idea of the ‘native’ and the ‘immigrant’, and how helpful are these in understanding teacher-student relationships?

"We" for Prensky is us digital immigrants. "They" refer to our children, those who were born into a world where the Internet and cellphones are part of everyday life. He persuades me, the reader, using the argument of technological autonomy..."progress" is irreversible. Adapt or be left behind. There is some truth, of course, to what he says. My children will not experience the world that I experienced. But then...that can be said of any parent, regardless of when they were born. I think it's useful to the point that I, a digital "immigrant," can start to see things from my children's perspective and learn how to see as they see...even if "through a glass, darkly." For example, I don't have to be so opposed and totally against games. That is what excites my child. It interests him. That kind of structure can be (and actually already is) a platform for learning.

Wesch's The Machine is Us/Using Us gave me chills. But then, the question was asked: What is being left out of the story of the internet here, and from what position is this story being constructed?

I am reminded that there are many, many perspectives. Anything can be a "machine": my body, my automatic responses. So, I shouldn't be afraid of a collective Internet "machine." After all, it is a human artifact, it is made up of not only the technology itself, nor the users, it is made up of our collective being. We cannot predict where exactly it will take us but it assures us that there is diversity of thinking behind it. I think we can all profit from this diversity.

Which brings me to my most important insight from this first week: my need to value a polyvalent way of thinking when it comes to eLearning, technology and digital culture. It is highly complex and requires rigorous and expanded thinking. I hope to pass on this kind of learning to my kids.

I am very excited by everything that I've learned so far from this EDC class. And I look forward to the next weeks!