Heli connecting ideas

I have to continue with the same IRRODL journal (see my former post). I have enjoyed reading the article Using mLearning and MOOCs to understand chaos, emergence and complexity in education written by Inge deWaard and 6 participants of the MobiMOOC course. I have heard many positive comments about that course, for instance Rebecca Hogue and Osvaldo Rodrigues mentioned it in some Jeff Lebow Hangouts (COOLcasts during eduMOOC). I remember Inge from earlier MOOCs and have followed her blog with interest.

I didn’t participate the MobiMOOC course myself, because I was not interested enough in mLearning So I can assess the article without my own subjective experiences.

The article has a broad perspectice, it aims to understand chaos, emergence and complexity in education using mLearning and MOOCs as a case.  I am interested in the chaos theory and I agree with the writers that is is still in its infancy when we take into account the new technologies – we need further research.

I wondered the concept “research-based case study”, I mean that case study means research in my mind. The writers were participants and researchers in MobiMooc. And further: In figure 3 we can see the answers to the question Did you work on a personal research-based project during the MobiMOOC ? There were 40 participants: yes 26 and no 14. What does this mean I wondered. It is not easy to be a participant and a researcher simultaneously (but I always try it myself).

Internal redundancy was conceptualized: common language English, common interest in mLearning, the willingness to share ideas and a certain digital literacy that enabled participants to follow the online course. This redundancy permits complex coactivity by fostering diversity. It is more usual that only internal diversity is defined in these MOOC studies.

I always like the results about age. Here age group 51-60 (11) and years 61-70 (4), so 38% of the participants were 51+. They are well digi-learning people.  I greatly agree with the conclusion that further research is needed not only age or gender but rather to intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. We must have strong intrinsic motivation to participate voluntarily using own time.

It is easy to agree with these contributions:

Dialogues are at the center of meaning, conversations between people are at the center of online communities. Dialogue has always been integral to human communication and growth.  Dialogue is the primary mechanism for maintaing connections and developing knowledge through them.

Some day we will describe the dynamics of online learning better and better. Thanks to Inge and other researches about this paper in which they embedded MobiMOOC and MOOCs in a framework of chaos theory, complexity and emergence.

I have got some names of research which I will go to read in the university library here in Jyväskylä. It is not necessary to get everything in digital format. Now I feel tired about using English but I have an idea to continue with this theme next year.. I want to understand better and deeper what’s going on in open online studies. See you in the year 2012.

Tags: dialogue, mooc, research