Time Magazine has given MOOCs credence today in a lengthy, provocatively named article entitled ‘College Is Dead. Long Live College!’ by Amanda Ripley. On the fourth web page we find a quote from the University of Phoenix but one that is typical of many senior managers in higher education today:
Still, it will be a long time before companies besides high-tech start-ups trust anything other than a traditional degree. That’s why hundreds of thousands of people a year enroll in the University of Phoenix, which most students attend online. Says University of Phoenix spokesman Ryan Rauzon: “They need a degree, and that isn’t going to change anytime soon.”
I wonder whether these are yet another example of famous last words.
I am on my 3rd iPad model but acquired a Google Nexus 7 a couple of months ago or so on its release in Australia. In that relatively short time I now use the Nexus three times as much as the iPad on a daily basis. There are obvious differences but today I just comment on the use of Google Chrome on the two platforms as a social media hub. This use occurs when I browse a web page and need to disseminate the link and a comment across my social media assets that primarily include Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+ and now App.net. Add to that list the asset repositories Diigo and Instapaper.
On iOS Chrome when you want to share the page link the menu is shown on the right. It is basic but useful, especially the Google+ link which for me is important as I am tending to use Google+ rather than Facebook as my first choice. Of course most of my social media channels feed into Facebook by choice so I rarely need to go to Facebook directly.
Contrast this with the equivalent menu on Android Chrome. The vastly different extensive list of sharing locations is not built in to Chrome per se. Rather a mechanism is provided to allow any app installed on Android to register itself to be a source of sharing. This can be a little overdone of course as you see some unlikely sharing locations that I will never use. like Godaddy mail.
Note that the Power Note app saves the link to Diigo. Hooha is the portal to App.net. For those unaware the Remember the Milk app is a great Aussie task manager.
The ability to save to the cloud storage systems such as Drive, Dropbox and SkyDrive is also a huge bonus.
Evernote has become my lifeline with data accessible on every portable device I carry so its inclusion is a lifesaver at times.
Flipboard and Skype are added bonuses which I am yet to explore.
Which platform would you choose for your social media hub? Android has become my first choice.
I am very pleased to see that slumbering giant Australian Higher Education react against the MOOC tidal wave. In a reflective post entitled 'MOOCs : neither a death of a university nor a panacea for learning' Jane Den Hollander the VC of Deakin University gives a balanced view of the disruptive effects MOOCs will inevitably bring.
Here the recognition of the threat:
Those in higher education would be foolish to ignore it [MOOCs] even though outcomes are not clear and many uncertainties exist.
Here the recognition of the opportunity:
MOOCs, and all their iterations, are an opportunity to re-imagine how we can deliver excellent learning outcomes in new, more accessible and engaging ways, fit for 21st century learners and graduates.
But where is the hint of an immediate action plan? Surely a MOOC Disruption Committee should be formed and start meeting within the month, Otherwise the MOOC tidal wave will sweep in and likely decimate the institution.
The credibility of the learning achieved in higher ed will continue, but many are questioning seriously whether a swathe of other means can achieve the same ends at much, much lower economic cost. In his post from Time Magazine Michael Ellsberg distinguishes the concepts of learning versus the credibility of having learned.
He poses the question of whether a higher ed degree can be replaced by:
Thus the sources of credibility move out of the monopoly enjoyed by higher ed. I agree with Michael though that the law, medicine and engineering professions, for example, will be slow to allow non-higher ed credibility sources to be recognised.
Nevertheless, in most other walks of life you can build a business that demonstrates your credibility. Good luck.
In Invisible Learning, John Moravec and Cristóbal Cobo, define a knowmad or nomadic knowledge and innovation worker as a creative, imaginative, and innovative person who can work with almost anybody, anytime, and anywhere.
In a post John lists the 9 characteristics of knowmads:
Are you a knowmad? While I have worked in hierarchical organisations all my working life, participating in social networks have shown I can adapt to to loose networks without structure. I reckon I am pretty close to a knowmad.
