Reflection: What I got from MobiMOOC 2012 - thanks everybody!

[Tuulia Kiilavuori]

Hi all,

 

As I do not have blog I'll write a reflective post about my experiences of my first MOOC, so here it goes. I registered to this course because I wanted to experience what it would be like to do a MOOC. I also wanted to know how the course is organized and facilitated and which tools would be used. I was naturally also interested in the topic and wanted to learn from people who really are involved in this field what they think mLearning is.

 

I still do not quite know what fits under mLearning but I think that the discussion and webinars with so much information, ideas and examples has helped me to clarify my thoughts about the ways mobile technology can be used in education – thank you all of you for sharing your expertise. What I found particularly refreshing was Ignatia's post about categories for mobile communication and mLearning implementation as well as Geoff Stead's webinar on theory and practice and his emerging theory – thank you! And the discussion in the k-12 discussion forum with links to k12 resrources was relevant to me.

 

I found it surprising how good an incentive informality was for me to do the course. Knowing that you only work because you want to and not, for example, to fullfill any criteria for passing the course encourages to dig deeper into the issues that really interest you as well as to share your ideas, and even to write a project overview. I am not sure if there is a conflict between informal education and badges, but I still think that a badge demonstrating that you have been involved in informal learning is a good idea.

 

I also very much appreciate the ideas about possible cooperation after this course.

 

This MOOC has made me think more consciously about the possibilities of mobile technology to support learners with diverse needs. I believe in integration of learners with diverse needs in the same class and I think that technology might have a lot to offer for teachers who teach heterogeneous groups. I do not mean that we should leave it to software to decide what is best for each learner or base teaching solely on mobile technology, but exporing the possibilities of mobile technology might give teachers new tools for better responding to diverse needs. At the moment, I feel that technology has given me an extra pair of hands for supporting diverse learning strategies and the discussion in this MOOC with links to so many interesting writings has shown that there is a lot to explore in this area

 

Thank you for this MOOC, everybody. It is a lot easier to start using ”new” teaching methods when you can refer to cases that have already been done and ideas that have already been expressed. Special thanks to Inge, the amazing and ever so helpful MOOC hero!

 

Kind Regards,

Tuulia