Comment on Cathy Hill’s Weekly Summary Week 6 by cpsaros

Hi Cathy,

I’ve been having a look at your blog over last few days and it’s really easy to read. In the mass of information that is a lifestream, this is no easy feat. I think the one of the challenges as a lifestream blogger is to try and contextualise one’s thoughts so that they form a coherent narrative that others can understand. I think you’ve done this really well. I’m jealous of how easy it is to find everything. I wish I could do something similar but while I’ve tried to juggle content and interacting with the community, the technical functionality of my blog has fallen behind.

I thought I’d stop and comment on this particular post because ‘The Hoxton Street Monster Supplies’ shop from you image is a minute’s walk from my flat in London. I’ve gone past the shop hundreds of time and always wondered about the fantastic things they sell. 🙂

The feelings of anxiety and exhaustion are not yours alone. I think we all feel the time pressures and insecurities of having to produce work that is of a very high standard. It is increasingly demanding to have to reflect on our own learning and that of our EDC community’s whilst studying thousands of others in our different MOOC communities.

When I stop to consider the amazing work that is being done by our peers, I am in awe! Although the incredible work inspires me and I get to see brilliant things I would never have thought of, I start measuring myself against others and my insecurities get the better of me. I make unfavourable comparisons thinking I will never be as good. What helps me overcome this is to remember some of the ideas I’ve had would never have been possible without seeing the marvellous work of others. It seems you do the same. Thanks for inspiring me to try and make my blog easier to navigate.

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Comment on Eli Appleby-Donald’s blog: A little bit of chat, a little bit of community building by cpsaros

Hi both,

I’m so pleased to be learning some Scottish slang. I definitely want to learn more! Maybe we could have a word of the week. 😉

Some really interesting points made about students with different needs. I think we are so focused in face-to-face education with meeting students’ needs, I was wondering how this is translated into the educational spaces in MOOCs. Is this something those educators should take into consideration, or should they run the course they want to and allow the participants to meet their own needs? What happens if those participants don’t really know what it is that they need because they don’t have the experience? It’s definitely given me something to think about.

I think having a Skype chat as a regular thing is a great idea. Good idea to set a topic, maybe give someone the job as moderator so we don’t speak over each other (something I was conscious of doing because I was so excited to chat to you guys!) Can’t wait for next time.

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Tweet: Doteveryone

I was introduced to Dr Rachel Coldicutt at the LSE Literary Festival. She is a creator of digital content and she has worked in a number of educational contexts. She has created Doteveryone to try and make digital life more accessible to those who find it difficult.

 

Tweet: LSE Literary Festival

I was fortunate enough to attend a couple of panels at the London School of Economics Literary Festival. While the Growing up online: A digital revolution?’ was interesting, there was nothing I hadn’t heard or considered before. However, it was an entirely female panel, something I rarely see at events involving technology. It did introduce me to a few interesting people I would not have known about; one of them is Emma Gannon, a blogger, writer and influencer. Her book CTRL ALT DELETE: How I Grew Up Online documents her journey through digital culture.

 

Tweet: Twitter in MOOCs

I found this blog post through Renée Furner because I was really struggling to find any participant engagement outside of the MOOC I am doing. I eventually found the paper the blog is based on . It made me wonder why Twitter isn’t being used more in MOOCs since I’m finding it increasingly useful to engage with the MSCEDC community.

From this tweet I had and interesting conversation with Philip Downey about this very topic.

Building communities

Twitter is restrictive when trying to convey meaning so we moved our conversation into direct messaging and outside of the public sphere.

Connecting in private

When I consider that it has taken about six weeks for me to connect with, and feel like I’m part of a community, I realise why Twitter may not be useful for connecting in MOOCs. It takes time to build relationships and see how we might be able to interact with others both within and out of an educational context. I suspect interaction on Twitter might not be successful because MOOCs simply don’t run long enough to build those relationships.

Tweet

I rejoiced when I eventually found the hashtag #FLiot for my MOOC only to find out that it wasn’t being used.

 

Tweet

This brilliant article about the history of moderation was shared by Renée Furner with me via Twitter. It gives a glimpse of how devastatingly difficult it is to choose what people should see and what they shouldn’t, and the far reaching implications for our online communities.