Category Archives: English

English, etmooc

A few thoughts on Ecologies of Yearning by @gardnercampbell #etmooc

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Some quotes from Gardner Campbell‘s Ecologies of Yearning talk at OpenEd12:

We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are

…I was struck and deeply moved to think that I have seen, I have listened to students and colleagues who describe their own relationship with the institution we call Higher Education as one determined primarily by paranoia, hebephrenia or catatonia.

…open is not a simply quality to adopt or a direction to pursue.  Open is an certain attitude towards systems and the desires those systems empower and focus.

We shall not cease from exploration
and the end of all our exploring
will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time

– T.S. Eliot

I share in part what Gardner say about the current state of MOOCs.  I agree that was not what I had in mind, yet that is our reality.  It’s worth saying that in Latin America the MOOC-rush has yet to reach its tipping point, just like happened with OCW a decade ago.  Yet the risks are exactly the same English commentators and practitioners talk about.

The thing is, as Gardner suggests, that it’s difficult to take a stand. Does cheap access to top content matters? I’d say it does. Is that enough? I think that’s a question each one of us have to answer, but we have to keep in mind that ‘enough’ is relative to the values and interests of a society and, at large scale, it would seem that for most of our societies, feeding content might be enough to *survive* the education experience.  So why bother with all those pesky questions?

It seems to me, as time goes by, that delusion might be a requirement if we intend to keep our sanity and be coherent with the things we believe in, considering that the world at large and what constitues the statu quo seems to be going somewhere else.

As usual, very provocative talk by Gardner.  :-)

Cursos Abiertos, English, etmooc

Joining #etmooc: My intro

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Here’s my short introduction to #etmooc, trying to follow the suggestions in Orientation week :) :

Special thanks to my mom for her invaluable help with lighting. 😉

The work I’ve developed in the last few years is (obviously) my starting point for #etmooc.  In case anyone is interested, there are some documents (1,2,3), videos (1,2) and a webpage describing a bit more of this work (here’s a post for Spanish speakers).

I’m looking forward to keeping up with #etmooc (I do have lots of things to do!) and to learn a lot from the experience.  I’m already doing it! :)

Education, English, Personal Learning Environments

From open online courses to open blended experiences: lessons from Latin America

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Last year, I ran into a Call for chapters for a book on Open Online Courses edited by Rita Kop, Stephen Downes and George Siemens, so I decided it would be worth to try and organize a (somewhat general) account of the work I’ve been doing in this area since 2009, to communicate some of its outcomes to a non-Spanish audience.

Here’s a first (somewhat rough) draft of that chapter.  Even though it contains a lot of information, there’s a lot that could not be said in the available space. Obviously, there’s plenty of room for improvement, so comments and suggestions will be very well received.

Special thanks to Gladys Ledwith, Fernando Díaz del Castillo and Juan José Aldaz for reviewing and commenting the first document. They really helped me to improve it a lot! :)

English, Uncategorized

A Blackboard Collaborate room proposal

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I’m participating in “Collaborate for good“, a contest by Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate), in which you must propose a way to use a 50 seat room to make a difference in the world.  As usual, there’s a lot of proposals from English-based countries , but not many from Latin America, so here’s my two cents:

Since 2009, I’ve been using Elluminate as a critical tool in the offering of open online courses, which have included participants from Colombia, México, Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina and Brazil (the entry point to these experiences can be found here, here and here).   Sometimes I’ve used trial rooms although, in 2010, Elluminate’s Latin America regional director kindly provided a room so we could held our weekly synchronous sessions.  Because of their experience with these courses, several organizations and people chose Elluminate to develop their own projects.  In each of these experiences, all sessions were archived and made available to anyone interested.

At the time I’m working with Uruguayan teachers (who are part of the One Laptop per Child national initiative), facilitating a professional development process which aims to demonstrate the possibilities of the information and communication technologies available today, and to empower them to create networks of practice concerning technology integration in the classroom (more info here). This experience is developed in the open web, using free public tools. Elluminate (by means of LearnCentral’s host-your-own-webinar room) has been critical to enhance the sense of community and demonstrate the possibilities of web conferencing tools in the first part of this experience, going beyond presentations to engage participants in real-time collaborative online work.  The results of this experience suggest that it has allowed teachers to rediscover a sense of possibility and to believe in their own ability to integrate technology.

We want to go bigger with this experience, trying to involve people from all over Latin America in the next months.  That’s why a permanent Blackboard Collaborate room would be very useful to give further access to people involved in this experience, so they can start creating their own experiments, while getting in touch with an enhanced network of practitioners.

At the same time, I’m helping in a project with several people from consumers organizations from all around Latin America.  These organizations are exploring the possibilities that social media bring to the promotion of citizenship participation and collective action in issues such as water regulation and consumer protection, for example.  Again, an open Blackboard Collaborate room would allow for an enhanced sense of community and the chance to go faster in the creation of grassroots-based projects.

So, one Blackboard Collaborate room, and two ways to change the world, with a chance to discover more along the way.  Two ways to empower Spanish-speaking Latin American teachers and citizens to figure out meaningful ways to use technology in their lives, and to make a difference in their local communities.  Two ways to enhance ideas that have been tested and need help to grow.

(This has been cross-posted in the “Collaborate for Good” contest site )