A couple of weeks ago I wrote some stuff about dipping my toes in the waters of the MOOC. It started this week, And gosh, has online learning moved on. I'm no stranger to it - I've done more than a few remote course through the Open University in an era when the internet had started to have some bearing on that long-established exemplar for the best of remote learning - but the experience now is a genuine substitute for, if not an improvement on traditional approaches. Video lectures you can attend at a time that suits you. Rich discussion forums. Mechanisms to connect you with other students to participate in group projects. Increasingly sophisticated approaches to examination that can provide proper, certificated qualifications. Above all else, a vast body of high quality teaching that's available for free, as academic bodies fall over themselves to compete for the attentions of students by putting large proportions of their offerings online, at diminishing marginal cost. If you still have elderly relatives claiming that there's no real point to the internet... well: This is the Point of the Internet.
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What does it feel like? Well, in my chosen place of study - the attic - it feels a bit like this:
Yesterday I 'attended' a lecture at my desk at work, whilst eating a sandwich. And tonight, I attended one in the bath, on my iPhone. Am I sold on the concept? You wouldn't believe how much... I only wish I was younger, so I could look forward to more years of it.
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