Second week of World Wide Ed – Online Instruction for Open Educators course. Work takes up all my free time right now so I can’t keep up with all the info, discussions, etc. I do try to take a quick look at some of the materials each week. A couple of things that resonated with me so far:
1. Quote by Terry Anderson on teaching online:
“First and primarily, an excellent e-teacher is an excellent teacher. Excellent teachers like dealing with learners; they have sufficient knowledge of their subject domain; they can convey enthusiasm both for the subject and for their task as a learning motivator; they are equipped with a pedagogical (or andragogical) understanding of the learning process, and have a set of learning activities at their disposal by which to orchestrate, motivate, and assess effective learning.†Anderson, T. (2008). Teaching in an online learning context.. In T. Anderson (Ed.), The theory and practice of online learning (pp. 343-365). Athabasca, AB: AU Press.
2. On costs ..
One of the largest complaints from academics is that university administration expenses are growing even faster than those associated directly with teaching and research. University hierarchies continue to grow with more deans, chairs, vice presidents, and a most of other roles (usually accompanied with support staff). This spending on administrative growth has outpaced the growth in expenditures for teaching since the 1930s (Bergmann, 1991). Unlike in other economic sectors, few universities have chosen (or as yet been forced by economic exigency) to flatten their organizations, merge, share services or otherwise drastically reduce administrative overhead.
Source: Anderson, T., & McGreal, R. (2012). Disruptive Pedagogies and Technologies in Universities. Education, Technology and Society, 15(4), 380-389. Retrieved from http://www.ifets.info/journals/15_4/32.pdf
3. http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/890/182
4. I tuned in on Saturday for a class with Terry Anderson. I was back and forth about whether to attend … it was Saturday, I was super busy, no credit, etc. But it was Terry Anderson and I was interested in hearing him speak on the subject. Unfortunately he missed the session. Funny story — http://terrya.edublogs.org/2013/10/27/my-participation-in-online-instruction-for-open-educators-mooc/ Not sure what it means for future of Mooc’s, but certainly something to ponder.