Online learning is planned, deliberate and thoughtful in the sense that online courses often take months or even years to develop, not days or weeks.
Online learning is far more than online courses and programs. It always has been. While inside the institution it has been difficult to imagine learning as anything other than courses and programs, outside the institution, over the last three or four decades, online learning has been something very different.
the wider internet to introduce educators to things like learning communities, blogs, social software, MOOCs, personal learning environments, and most recently, decentralized technology.
Online learning should be fast, fun, crazy, unplanned, and inspirational. It should be provided by people who are more like DJs than television producers. It should move and swim, be ad hoc and on the fly. I wish educators could get out of their classroom mindsets and actually go out and look at how the rest of the world is doing online learning. Watch a dance craze spread through TikTok, follow through-hikers on YouTube, organize a community in a Facebook group, discuss economic policy in Slack. All of that is online learning – and (resolutely) not the carefully planned courses that are over-engineered, over-produced, over-priced and over-wrought.
I quite agree with what Jim Groom said, that this is not “the time for wild experimentation.” I also recognize that a lot of what is happening today is an emergency response to an unprecedented situation. As Clint Lalonde says, “What is happening right now at many institutions as they are scrambling is grasping at life preservers trying to stay afloat
Qualitative researchers: Does anyone have any general pointers on conducting qualitative work in this environment other than doing interviews or focus groups over Zoom? Example: I (normally) do a lot of participant observation work. Where and how will I do this or do it as well as I have done it?
At this moment, my focus is all on teaching. But if this situation becomes more prolonged, I need to figure out how to keep the research going too.
#twitterstorians, in the fall, I’m teaching a course called “Fake History,” which will explore commonly held myths and lies about the past. What myth/lie/misconception about the past troubles, irks, annoys, or bothers you the most? (I’m trying to figuring out what I’m missing)
Augmented Reality + Videoconferencing: meet together virtually in the same place, collaborate and communicate as if you were there. Demo below, links to try it yourself to follow! pic.twitter.com/AbZAof0cJ5
