As Week 4 begins in my various MOOCs, I am still still catching up on Week 3, while trying to blog about Week 2. We were busier than usual at work during "week 2". It was the end of the term and we had exams. I was tempted to jump straight to Week 3, but then this story that I am telling in installments would have been missing a chapter. Even though I didn't manage to do much homework that week, interesting things were still happening.

In Rhizomatic Learning, Dave Cormier posted the following question:

Learning rhizomatically is the goal, but how do we get there? The position of teachers is based on whole set of power structures that create a reliance on the teacher for setting objectives, assessing progress and giving direction. How can we take people who've spent their whole lives believing that this is 'learning' and MAKE them independent?

As I have said, I didn't do much work during week 2 week, so I didn't post my answer to this question. However, I spent a lot of time thinking about it. Can you enforce independence? Isn't it a paradox?

I keep meeting the same people over and over again in my various MOOCs. They move across platforms effortlessly and they are constantly participating in new MOOCs and communities of practice. These people somehow manage to navigate multiple platforms and cope with information overload. They have obviously reached the level of independence that is required for online learning. They share resources, post their reflections, notes and mind-maps and often create a course-within-the-course. With Coursera courses you learn most intensively not from the lectures, not in the forums, but in student-created Facebook groups. Some of these students have their own blogs, others Tweet or bookmark. When a MOOC doesn't meet their expectation, they simply walk out. Once the MOOC finishes, they continue to share in their Facebook group.

After 6 years online, I think I can safely say that I am one of them. I don't remember how I reached this level of independence. I am not sure it can be taught. Self-taught perhaps. Can it be enforced? Well, you know the joke involving a lightbulb and a psychiatrist.

The lightbulb has got to really WANT to change.

Still, there are some things that good teachers do that can be applied to a MOOC:

• Good teachers model the behaviour they want to see. Al Filreis recorded his ModPo videos as round table discussions because that was the behaviour he wanted to see in the forums. Denise Comer used a pseudonim to write and submit essays in her writing MOOC, exposing herself to the infamous Coursera peer reviews. She then reflected on the activity and showed us how we could benefit from any kind of review we got.
• Good teachers create an environment in which it is safe for you to experiment and make mistakes. As one students said in Al's webcast when he put her on the spot: " The worst thing I can do is be wrong."
• Good teachers leave you some autonomy. If I want to do my homework in my blog or in a Facebook group, that should be acceptable.
• Good teachers don't spoon-feed you information, they let you find some of it on your own. 
• Good teachers are humble. They will let you teach them what you know and they will give you the credit for that.
• Good teachers plan carefully, so that they give you the best possible course. Despite this, or because of this
• Good teachers are willing to improvise and make on-the-spot changes of curriculum, platforms, or any other element of the course. 
• Good teachers use the platform so that it suits their needs and the needs of their students. Read how Al Filreis used Coursera to create something amazing.

http://prezi.com/2tedivezofmk/redefining-cheating-rhizo14/#

The third EVO course I am taking is The Use of Mobile Applications in Language Classes. I know nothing about mobile learning and I only bought my first smartphone a month ago. It has quickly become indispensable, together with my ipod and my desktop computer. I am looking forward to learning about a topic that is completely new to me.

EVO course Number 4 is Wonderful Words: Vocabulary Matters. I have always loved vocabulary and I am looking forward to brushing up my theory in this area and learning new fun ways to present and recycle vocabulary. Even though this is the week when we are only introducing ourselves, a couple of interesting discussions have been started. One is about using journaling for students to improve their language skills. One of the many good sides of free journaling is that it helps students choose which vocabulary they need, by choosing the topics they want to investigate. Another very interesting discussion has sprung around this blog post. I am going to try this technique out, it sounds great.

Last, but by no means least - Crafting the ePerfect eTextbook (#ebookevo). It is a very ambitious course and the number of participants qualifies it as a MOOC. The course is run by a great team of moderators. My dear friends Shelly Terrell and Janet Bianchini are in the team and I am really happy to be learning from them. What makes me even more happy is that I will  be participating in a collaborative project. Four other teachers from my school (Sneza, Milica, Darko and Vlada) will be writing the ebook with me and you can find our project under the tag #kolaracebookevo. Some of the teachers in my group are novices in this type of learning, so my task this year is to provide the scaffolding as well. The concept of interactive ebooks is new to me too, so this is going to be a steep learning curve.

I would like to finish this week's blog post with the 3,2,1 Introduction Animoto I created for #ebookevo:


Tags: #evosessions, #ebookevo, #evomlt, #evomlt14, #2014evo, #rhizo14, #kolaracebookevo