Friday, February 7, 2014

Moving into a MOOC



I started my third MOOC course today, this one from Wellesley College via EdX, on the Greatness of Alexander.  As always my goal is to find the time to finish the course and expand my learning, while thinking about how these types of courses can fit into our school and help students pursue their educational passions.

The first observation that I want to make as I jump into this course is one that astounded me when my professor-Guy MacLean Rogers-mentioned it in his introduction to the course.
You come from more than 100 countries, including all the lands through which Alexander campaigned in the Middle East, the Near East, and Asia.
You range in ages from your early teens to your late 80s.
Some of you are still in middle school.
Others are senior professors or even emeriti of very distinguished
institutions.
Many of you have studied some aspect of classics or ancient history, though
the vast majority of you have never taken a course before on ancient history or Alexander the Great.
  The possibilities to learn from, and hopefully view pictures taken by students from these areas just amazes me.  As does the diversity of the learning environment that has been created and knowledge base we can all draw from.  Now I just need to learn how to better foster relationships via discussion board.