Conectivismo, elearning y MOOC

[Alfredo Calderon-Serrano]

Guest Speaker
Stephen Downes is our guest speaker. Stephen will speak about connectivism, online learning, and the MOOC. 

Stephen Downes works for the National Research Council of Canada where he has served as a Senior Researcher, based in Moncton, New Brunswick, since 2001. Affiliated with the Learning and Collaborative Technologies Group, Institute for Information Technology, Downes specializes in the fields of online learning, new media, pedagogy and philosophy.

Downes is perhaps best known for his daily nesletter, OLDaily, which is distributed by web, email and RSS to thousands of subscribers around the world. He has published numerous articles both online and in print, including The Future of Online Learning (1998), Learning Objects (2000), Resource Profiles (2003), and E-Learning 2.0 (2005). He is a popular speaker, appearing at hundreds of events around the world over the last fifteen years ( see his website). 

Connectivism, Online Learning, and the MOOC
Although MOOCs and Connectivism appear to be the result of recent innovation, neither has emerged from a vacuum. The three elements in the title of this talk, Connectivism, Online Learning, and the MOOC, relate to three core elements in a learning society: knowledge, learning and community. This talk will draw out aspects of each of these three elements and relate them specifically to the development and design of MOOCs today, and in particular to network-based MOOCs (or cMOOCs).

Pioneers of the MOOC
Making Sense of MOOCs: Musings in a Maze of Myth, Paradox and Possibility by Sir John Daniel, a fellow at the Korea National Open University and Education Master at DeTao Masters Academy, China provides an excellent exploration of the MOOC. According to Sir John Daniel, "Cormier and Bryan Alexander coined the acronym to describe an open online course at the University of Manitoba designed by George Siemens and Stephen Downes" (See article).