e-learning-ukr

ORLANDO -- The men and women who attend the Sloan Consortium's annual meeting have been toiling in the fields of online learning for many years, so they could be forgiven for having a wee bit of skepticism (if not resentment) about "MOOC mania," the hubbub of hyper-attention that has been paid in recent months to the massive open online courses developed by Harvard, MIT, Stanford and other elite universities.

Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/10/12/online-learning-group-hears-mooc-pioneer#ixzz299eVlh9B
Inside Higher Ed

I would like to make just one point, that it is not "Siemen's 'Connectivism,'" that he gave a name to a theory and approach a number of us had been working on for some time. I don't mind saying I borrow the name from him, but I would certainly say this is as much my theory (and that of numerous other people) as it is his. Here, for example, are four papers I wrote before Siemens's 'Connectivism' (which appeared December 12, 2004):

MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) are the educational buzzword of 2012. Media frenzy surrounds them and commercial interests have moved in. Sober analysis is overwhelmed by apocalyptic predictions that ignore the history of earlier educational technology fads. The paper describes the short history of MOOCs and sets them in the wider context of the evolution of educational technology and open/distance learning. While the hype about MOOCs presaging a revolution in higher education has focussed on their scale, the real revolution is that universities with scarcity at the heart of their business models are embracing openness. We explore the paradoxes that permeate the MOOCs movement and explode some myths enlisted in its support. The competition inherent in the gadarene rush to offer MOOCs will create a sea change by obliging participating institutions to revisit their missions and focus on teaching quality and students as never before. It could also create a welcome deflationary trend in the costs of higher education.

In the attempt to create an “Open Classroom” I have been reflecting upon what I mean by “Open Education”. Most sources like http://www.cyberlawcentre.org/unlocking-ip/2009/materials/Papers/2A_DBrowne.pdf describe Open Education based on Open Content- resources that have open acces to anyone and everyone.

I am interested in this post and post on critical thinking. Is critical thinking a skill?  Can one teach critical thinking? Stephen has delivered the course on Critical Literacies MOOC in the past....