Recap from last week: That EdTech Edge looked at how South African education is steadily joining the EdTech revolution, but also identified two main issues facing educators within the country. One being the aversion to technology in the classrooms, especially in the traditional school set-up, and the second being the lack of resources to train teachers to use the relevant software.
In this environment, students are often expected to learn from a person who is knowledgeable about the course. Or they are expecting an environment where there are people to teach the course material, mark the work that is produced, as well as provide timely reports on individual student progress. Now, however, there is a certain dissatisfaction among more independent learners with the traditional view that one person or an institution should be administering basic knowledge over a standardised period of time. Or tailor information for a specific age group during this standardised period of time.
This is where the Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, come into play.
What are MOOCs?
As a DIY method for people of all ages who want to learn independently, MOOCs are often free and lack the physical constraints of orthodox ideas of learning, teaching, and testing. What’s more, MOOCs also accredit the enrolled learners at the end of the course once they have been assessed. Although it supports traditional education and curricula for those in schools and universities, the question is now about why this form of learning and accreditation should matter to people in general. What makes MOOCs relevant to society today?
Considering the positives of the Internet, the first answer is that of access. Access to any knowledge, from anywhere in the world, from the academic experts and self-taught pioneers who are all contributing to a more informed and capable society. According to Anant Agarwal, a Computer Science professor at MIT and speaker at a TED Talks session, the idea of global access to knowledge for the public is linked to the reimagination of education. He believes that anyone who can access the internet and has the “will to learn” is capable of making a difference in their lives and to the lives and minds of others. He also emphasised the difference in styles of communication between students of today and the educators of yesterday, wherein the students communicate faster and better through technologies they are familiar with. MOOC enrollers therefore learn better by enrolling in courses that still essentially teach and assess the traditional way, but communicate the information in a millennial way.
The second answer to the relevance of MOOCs is skill building. Not only does it provide a step up in terms of knowing a subject, but it is also useful in the practical arena. Learning multiple knowledges and allowing that information to inform and improve the way things in the world are done is both an enterprising move as well as contributes to a better society. This style of thinking is emphasised when independent and limitless learning takes place. And more importantly this skill in itself should matter to students and educators in the traditional education environment, because in today’s world such thinking is what gets people ahead in their careers and in society.
MOOCs, being online courses, require and encourage qualities like independence, diligence, and curiosity outside the field of one subject - and think beyond just the accreditation for knowing something. This is because the student must seek out the knowledge for themselves and consider more practical applications, rather than the traditional model of students being given the knowledge and expected to know it so it can be tested later.
Follow these links for more information and opportunities to find out what fits you best:
This form of independent and resourceful learning yields a mindset that looks beyond grades and approval from authority, and allows people to push themselves to a greater and more practical understanding of the world around them.
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Look out for my next blog post. See you next week!