Tuesday, January 8, 2013

etmooc for the rest of us

So ... #etmooc.

I''m in a ... course? Experience? Learning environment? called #etmooc.

Meh, I'll just write it out for those that don't know ... Educational Technology Massive Open Online Course. In a word, the future.

You won't believe me but I had a discussion today in my class with a student having to attend a school in person, he asked. We went on to think about why do they have to do that, why can't they just learn on their time, using technology and progressing at their own pace?

Indeed, why not.

 I keep running into teachers and students that accuse technology of distracting students from learning. Well, of the learning the teachers insist is the most important thing in the room. Sometimes people focus on the wrong things. That is true.

Then we, as teachers, should take advantage of the technology and use it better than the kids and teach them how to use it to their own advantage.

Makes sense,yes? How can we learn to use technology to make it possible to encourage learning at all times of the day ... at all ages of life? I never want to stop learning, stop training nor stop teaching.

That's the stuff I want to learn how to impart to my students in this etmooc.