Group items tagged

Blog post by Mark Athitakis, September 8, 2014 on a statewide association building a MOOC to educate health care workers. "One executive at a state association has taken the lead on educating healthcare workers on a pressing national issue via a MOOC. How do you get more attention for your association? Maybe it's a membership drive. Maybe it's a meeting or an ad campaign. For Jan Grimes, it's meant building a lot of partnerships and putting together a must-attend online course. "

Leveling Up research project makes me think about all the benefits of being associated with a purpose driven online adult group. It may start out as a research group, one may participate to help deliver an outcome/product, but the growth that one can experience through reflection, application, adaptation, and sharing with the 'team' is where the learning occurs on an individual basis. How can one do a better job of harvesting the learning collectively for the group and for exporting (for whatever reason) to other audiences? Excerpt: "Our gaming cases center on the learning resources and supports that surround specific game communities. The experience of games is bigger than the designed games themselves. Players think about and work on games before, during, and after play. They develop complex relationships to their play, write detailed theory about their play, invest in their gaming reputations, and bring all of this into other social contexts. All of this "other" activity is known as the metagame, and designing for it is a key consideration in the crafting of games. More explicitly, gaming activities that include a social media component, span physical and virtual space, leverage the social labor of players in ways that reinforce and extend the experience into the everyday lives of the players."

A blog titled "Inside the Ivory Tower" about teaching musings. This blog brings up the issue of cost in teaching and learning, i.e., the online courses that this professor designs and teaches are often shared by students with non-enrolled learners. The nonenrollees get the materials but not the camaraderie in the online classroom or credential or tutoring that completing this class at the instituion under the teacher's guidance provides enrolled students. The professor would like to share his/her knowledge with the world but his/her reimbursement package is based solely on the # of enrolled students. He is still paying for his own higher education and that of two children, and soon, a third child. What is fair use in this situation when the teacher is just getting by economically himself/herself? It begs the question: How can open learning initiatives that have started at MIT, Carnegie Mellon, etc. be emulated at state universities or other less well endowed settings? Further, how can professional associations offer MOOCs or COOLS when they are not capitalized to do so?

Article from Metropolis Magazine, October 2008 on Asset-based Design See excerpt: "In contrast, an asset-based approach works with communities to identify their skills and capacities, and invites them to play an active role in the renewal of their environment. "This approach says that all communities have assets. The needs-based provision of services really only addresses the symptoms of the issues without doing any deeper social analysis to uncover the root problems. If joblessness is linked to a lack of educational activities, well, then that is the root issue. We're not saying designers can come in and fix all of those problems; we are saying that designers themselves have a particular asset to contribute, which is their professional expertise at creating beautiful spaces and using design to involve the community in discovering and expressing who they are." How to practice design that builds on a community's strengths and priorities: 1. Identify your community partner. Target a specific organization to partner with, whether it's a design center, a development corporation, a block association, or a nonprofit. By honoring the community building that has already taken place, you will also attract less suspicion as a new face. Begin a dialogue to find a design project. 2. Immerse yourself in the life of the community. Spend time or consider living there. Find out where people like to eat and hang out, what kind of meetings they go to, and what places have a lot of energy-perhaps an arts or a recreation center. Find out what the kids are excited about. Connect with community leaders. Go door-to-door if necessary. 3. Conduct a social analysis. Who has power? What are the challenges facing the community? What are its demographics? What are its core values? Who makes the decisions, and who benefits from or bears the costs of them? It helps to understand how the neighborhood came into being, its history, and the larger town or region in which it is situated. Map ex