The
following blog post relates to a recent article by Keith Brennan (http://www.hybridpedagogy.com/Journal/files/Guide_to_the_MOOC_Novice.html) and the reply that Steven
Downes wrote in his “Half an Hour” blog post http://halfanhour.blogspot.ca/2013/07/connectvism-and-primal-scream.html. The article by Brennan (“In Connectivism, No One Can Hear You
Scream: a Guide to Understanding the MOOC Novice”) refers
to the “experience of technology novices and unconfident learners in cMOOCs
environments”. Based on his experiences in cMOOCs he states:
To Learn in a cMOOC you need to
connect
To connect in a cMOOc you need to learn
To connect in a cMOOc you need to learn
Anyone
taking a “Physics 1” course in university will surely be a novice on the course
subject: mechanics. The “novice” in all of Brennan’s reasoning refers to novice
to the basic skills for participation in cMOOCs not the course subject. All his arguments really refer to the
difficulties encountered in utilizing the technologies employed in cMOOCs.
Two
years back the technologies associated with using smartphones apps were foreign
to the majority of Argentinian users. Today they have become second nature. Internet
is in all schools and even “maestros” (primary school teachers) who were very uncomfortable
and reluctant to the introduction of
laptops in class use them regularly today. My mother aged more than 80,
receives email, uses what’s-up and much more.
cMOOCs
are intended for university courses and I cannot imagine a freshman at any
university in the world not being able to master email, making his own blog, adding
a hash-tag or tweeting. It may have been that in 2008 some course
participants of early cMOOCs (remember that 50 characterized average participant’s
age) could have felt novices with the needed technologies. But that is not the
case today. In this I coincide with
Steven Downes: “The idea that we are treating university students and adults as
“novices” is appalling”.
All
points discussed by Brennan (motivation,
cognitive load, the competent self, novices and success, failure) revolve on
the influence of not mastering the needed basic technological concepts for
participation in c-MOOCs.
Positive: the article has served to hear a condensed and clarifying version by Stephen
Downes (which I recommend) on these concepts within connectivism and cMOOCs.
On the
other hand, “unconfident” learners will surely find much more support in cMOOCs
than in most university courses.
No need
to scream!!