Going back to Week 1

This is the first post of this kind, so I will introduce this concept. Somewhat regularly, I will go back to what I wrote in the online forum and reflect on it - to see if my changing has changed or developed since I wrote it, based on the group discussions and the readings since.

To kick us off, I will recap in Week One here, when I wrote about two things;

a) Potential of Critical Thinking in MOOCs

b) Peer Grading

Four weeks have now passed, so I thought it would be a good moment to revisit my thoughts on the topic and see if they have developed.

Regarding critical thinking in MOOCs, I was myself quite critical of the potential. I understood why educators could worry about this aspect of online learning, and stated:

If I look at how we've been conceptualising critical thinking in this programme so far, a lot of that relies on Freire's pedagogy of the oppressed, and the idea of concientization. The methodology of Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed outlines that, among other things, critical thought is created through a dialogue - this process is what is called concientization (Guevara-Hernández et al., 2012). So, if one comes from a background attempting to create the type of critical thinking Freire talks about, I can see how the model of Coursera's online learning is insufficient, as the dialogue can be difficult to create. From what was shown in the lecture, much "dialogue" was made up of pre-set questions reacting to the content of what the lecturer had presented, and not an engagement within the group, or from the group to the content. I believe an important aspect is missed out there, in terms of having critical conversations and being subjected to other people's mind-sets and beliefs, thereby critically engaging with oneself and others. On the other hand, Koeller in this lecture did talk about ways of moving towards more community through forums e.g. and personalised feedback, so perhaps it is not impossible, as this would create smaller and more connected groups.

I would actually say that throughout this course, this belief has changed somewhat. I can see that it takes more effort on the part of the facilitator of learning, and possibly also the learners, in terms of being comfortable with the technology, but I don't discount that online learning cannot create critical thinking. Through the reading in Week 3 - Online Pedagogies, relating to Transformative Learning in Online Learning, small stable groups within the online course was emphasised. I think if tools like these are considered, then critical thinking can definitely be encouraged through a process, just like in a face-to-face environment. We just have to think about what is needed in the online learning environment, and not use our face-to-face default ideas as the starting point.

Not how it has to be!

On Peer Grading, my thought remain very similar. Mary shared some input on actual rubrics to use, which I think is very supportive and important if one is to employ this strategy.

#Revisit #Week1