What if MOOCs Revolutionize Education After All?
30th July 2017
Cheery Friday Greetings to our Learning How to Learners!
Book of the Month
Many of us have pondered our own mortality and the meaning of our lives. Along those lines, we recently finished neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air. (Audible version here.) This extraordinary book, written as Paul was in the final stages of his terminal illness at age 36, will resonate with us always.
Years ago, Barb’s favorite aunt was diagnosed with terminal illness. When Barb arrived to spend the day together, her aunt looked up, obviously near death (she would die the next day). Not knowing what else to say, Barb ventured “How are you doing?” Her aunt smiled and answered “Oh, I have my moments of bliss.” Reading When Breath Becomes Air gives a sense of that bliss.
What if MOOCs Revolutionize Education After All?
Here is Barb’s interview with Jeff Young of EdSurge about the power and future of MOOCs. EdSurge and Class Central’s Dhawal Shah are doing great reporting on the world of MOOCs. ( Barb is becoming convinced that lawn mowers lurk near her house, waiting for her to do a podcast before gunning their engines and leaping into distracting gear.)
MOOC-making in Indonesia
Our friend Rainer Heufers in Indonesia has a big interest in lowering the extremely high Indonesian food prices. To this end, he and others in Indonesia worked assiduously to launch a MOOC, “Food Trade in Indonesia.” (See this related article “High food prices lead to ‘chickens dying in a rice barn,’” by Julia Suryakusuma) Educating people, and providing a forum to intelligently discuss these kinds of issues are the kinds of important new “micro-education” revolutions that MOOCs are beginning to provide.
Barb on Big Think: Brain Bias—Why Not to Emulate Geniuses and Their Rigid Thinking Process
Here’s a discussion about why we don’t necessarily need to emulate genius on one of Barb’s favorite websites—Big Think. Along other learning lines, here’s a podcast Barb did with Billy Atwell on his interesting site, “Fear Not.”
That’s all for this week. Have a happy week in Learning How to Learn!
Barb, Terry, and the entire Learning How to Learn team
Follow LHTL on Facebook | Join the private LHTL Hall of Fame group | Follow LHTL on Twitter
