Thursday, May 2, 2013

Journal 9 NETs 1-5


Summary
MOOCs stand for massive open online courses, they are changing higher education, but now it is also impacting grades k-12. The article goes on explaining each letter of the acronym, starting with M or massive, which refers to the number of participants.  MOOCs are attracting a variety number of students depending on the institution.  Also, O or open refers to anyone who wants to participate with cost or no cost depending on the institution.  According to the article, it can also mean the transparency of the course activity.  The other O, or online, means that the courses are most of the time offered online but also face-to-face. Now more teachers from grades k-12 are being trained for this type of programs.  It is interesting to learn about these new ways of teaching and how technology is impacting education.  Online courses are known to be for higher education, but it is important to understand that things are changing and as future teachers we should get familiar with this topic so we can be prepared. 

Q1: Is MOOCs free for all students?

A1: According to the article, Open generally means that anyone who wants to participate is allowed to at no cost. However, some institutions do charge participants who want to earn college credits for MOOCs, and this is likely to become more common.

Q2: What are the subcategories for MOOCs?

A2:  There are two different kinds of MOOCs which are the cMOOCs and the xMOOCs.  The cMOOCs are characterized by deep participation in per groups of facilitators and participants.  On the other hand, the xMOOCs are more independent large groups of participants and tend to focus on academic areas such as computer science or math. 

Fasimpaur, K. (n.d.). Massive and open. (2013). Learning and Leading with Technology,
40(6), 12-17. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-leading/digitaledition/digital-edition-march-april-2013

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