eduMOOC 2011

Characteristics

There seems to be a heavy emphasis on participation. There are weekly live sessions for people to listen to. People can also participate using Twitter at the same time as the live discussion.
Participants are also recommended to look at the open (free of charge) material/resources (blogs, articles, Twitter, sites and organizations, videos, etc.) and discuss them in a Google Group. There is even a thread for people to form study groups or to focus on an area they're interested in. People say what they're interested in to see if anyone else wants to join them. I saw one for elementary science teaching picking up interested followers.

What It's About

It seems to be about online learning. Every week is a different topic, and different field experts comes every week to participate in the live discussions: online learning today, research in online learning, technology used in online learning, mobile learning and apps, what higher education is worth, personal online learning [vs dropping early?] (people are already using Facebook, so teach safety and ethics and how to use it effectively), how online learning is changing the field, and a look to the future.

What Others Are Saying

I found someone's blog discussing it. They summarized the main points of a presentation and seemed to appreciate what was said.
The University of Virginia was advertising a course, how people were from around the world, and that there would be 1600 people in the discussion. The number seemed a selling point.
On another blog, Abu Dhabi writes about his participation of the MOOC. His opinion seems to be that MOOCs are about meeting other people and learning and changing.

Questions

One person suggested using technology for learning. But what are some difficulties with technology in the classroom? What does it change about learning if it doesn't actually change learning?
Has technology changed learning not teaching?
Patricia McGee: It's how we choose to use the tools. Choices should primarily be driven by how the technology (apps) can streamline our learning rather than add to the burden on learner and instructor. What do you think adds to the burden of an instructor? Do problems with learning suite count? Or is it whether the benefits outweigh the difficulties?