MOOC’s

http://www.hybridpedagogy.com/Journal/files/Will_MOOCs_Work_for_Writing.html#unique-entry-id-107

I read this article about teaching writing composition and MOOC’s which are Massive Open Online Courses designed to teach a multitude of students all at once from all over the country and globe. The author of this article, Chris Friend, brings up a good point that much of composition teaching is done through a “specific and individuated” environment which doesn’t seem to match well with an online course that houses so many students. However, he brings up a good point that we should be learning from these new course structures instead of ignoring when they bring to the table. His five philosophies that can be taken from MOOC’s are very helpful and are a good outline to any classroom but especially for writing. His outlook on MOOC’s as a paradigm shift into a different teaching age was very helpful to me as a future teacher who needs to learn how to shift and change while education does.

This reminded me of some of the topics we have discussed this semester such as digital literacy and how important it is to be competent and literate in many of the new technological advances that we have to be able to use. One day I could be using computers to entirely communicate with my students and being prepared now is the best I can do for myself and my career. I’m not saying that the classroom will ever completely lose it’s effectiveness but for the most part face to face conversation is not the primary mode of communication and I don’t expect that to change any time soon. It is my job to look at the face of education and see where it is headed instead of where it has been and grow from that. By using strategies that are used in things like MOOC’s I can make sure my teaching methods are relevant and always be ready for what is coming next.