Saturday, December 15, 2012

Final Reflections


Richele Young
Creativity & Multi-Cultural Communication
FA12: Final Course Reflections

When I first started this course and started exploring the land of MOOC – massive online open course, I immediately began looking for some structure and guidelines in regard to what I was supposed to do in this type of learning environment, as I had never taken a class like this before. I’ve learned that in this type of learning environment, the concept of connectivism is imperative. Connectivism is being able to communicate and share ideas effectively to other participants using many different outlets on the Internet, whether it is through discussions, blogs, or social networking.

Through my final presentation, I have learned about an aspect of a personal learning environment, and that is content curation. In my presentation, I went through different categories of how content curation relates to connectivism in that it allows users to connect and network based on similar interests. Through this presentation, I discovered the www.scoop.it and that is a website that I will continue to use through out my education and beyond. I will also always stay connected with Facebook as another outlet of connectivism because I feel it will continue to be a long lasting channel for people to connect and communicate.

In the beginning of the semester, I installed the diigo tool in toolbar of my web browser and had just started to understand the concept of collecting and bookmarking data online. I did not pay attention to the dates of the articles or postings I had found. As I will continue to “lurk” in the CMC experiment, I will also keep my diigo more current since I now know how to use the scoop it tool.

In terms of my blog, I believe I showed progression in my actual experience of exploring and continuing to understand all of the seemingly never ending ideas that come out of, and come from, the MOOC. Blog postings for business or networking purposes are a great idea to allow authors to explain and display their ideas while giving other’s the options to comment and collaborate. Although many blog sites are changing and evolving, with some even fading, I think blogs will always be an important tool, especially the ones that allow for more interactivity and networking to be made possible and user-friendly for its users.

Lastly and most importantly, my experience in the MOOC has completely opened my eyes to a new way of learning. Being taken away from the linear learning path after so many years and being thrown into this wide open place where you are free to explore has definitely impacted my creativity and approach to problem solving. I’ve not only learned about so many different learning tools that make finding information easier, but I’ve learned about the importance of connectivism and how much that affects my creativity. I am excited to continue to lurk in the course and go back to the sections on creativity because they were the most interesting to me. I feel like I’ve been enlightened in so many ways and actually feel surprised that such a different way of learning existed without my knowledge at all. I will continue to use this class as guide in the way I collect and explore all the information I gather on my educational and life long learning journey.

Thank you Carol for this opportunity!


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