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Rescooped by Elizabeth E Charles from Networked Learning - MOOCs and more

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From www.thedigitalshift.com - April 20, 2013 3:53 PM

suifaijohnmak's comment, April 20, 2013 11:42 PM

Great insights Peter. I will respond to this. People are "buying" in with the xMOOCs for reasons as simple as: branding and easier to learn (as all information are already curated for them), and that a strong belief still with the instructivist approach reigns best, at least, that is what institutions want to see - a complete control under an institutional framework of education. Is that xMOOC sustainable? From a historical perspective, this fate would be like cMOOCs being "decimated" and "replaced" by xMOOCs (to some extent". But then this trend would appear in the K-12 sector soon, when automation of education and gamification, mobile learning takes their foothold in changing the education arena into "commercial minefield". Mobile technology could and would help in improving digital literacy, though it might not be reflected easily in improving the basic literacy on Science, Maths, Reading and Writing in the K-12. As I have shared, we are now in the Lord of the Ring game, where those who win takes all. Education is now a game, not as much as the once enlightenment or passion sort of education vision, but a pragmatic sort of education of whether one could get a job after taking a course of study, or getting famous through "educating" others in MOOCs. It is the media that would likely determine who is the winner, not the test anymore, as no one could objectively test or examine what is really "competent" or "capable" under those framework, mainly because they are producer driven, not user driven. John

Peter B. Sloep's comment, April 21, 2013 2:46 AM

Thanks for this, John. Future gazing is hard. I would hope you're wrong, but the US seems to be falling into the trap you describe without even realising it. I am of course referring to the initiative in California to set up a credit award system for xMOOCs.

suifaijohnmak's comment, April 21, 2013 10:19 AM

Thanks Peter. As you said, I do hope that wouldn't happen, though when institutions are seeing a few millions students registering with the MOOCs, wouldn't they think that is what the future lies? Here is my consolidated post http://suifaijohnmak.wordpress.com/2013/04/21/why-c-and-x-moocs-are-attracting-different-number-of-participants/ As you said, the initiative in California is just the start of the game. More will come along, when the k-12 MOOCs start to take its turn. I don't have the crystal ball, but I reckon this would attract more Venture Capitalists to invest in that area, as it is a multi-billion education business that no one wants to miss. Privatization and monetization based on a MOOC model has already started and would snowball with more institutions joining in.

MOOC Mania: Debunking the hype around massive open online courses | Audrey Watters - School Library Journa