It’s been almost two years since I first discovered DS106, the open-online course created at the University of Mary Washington (UMW). And a year since I took my first York College students through the experience (a crazy humbling one for myself). In the Fall 2011 semester UMW decided not to formally run a ds106 course, but Jim Groom and Martha Burtis were kind enough to support my running my first section of ds106 at York College. And I tried to do some role-playing as a bumbling professor, taking my students on a Journey to the Center of the Internet.
I learned a tremendous amount about teaching out in the open and continue to be inspired by ds106 to keep my art making and teaching chops up. There are times that I get overwhelmed by the work to support the institution as well as teach and make art. But it’s good to have the above reminder hiding under the pile.
You are, indeed, #4life—ds106 got so much better the day you joined in.
I agree with the Groomeister you have created some really cools stuff that keeps popping up on Twitter, in ds106 and other un-named locals. I wish I had one of these for a bumper sticker because I think I’m a #4lifer_2. Also wanted to see if you had checked out cogdogs link to #phonar. Vellllyyy in-tel-est-ing. Keep on “making art dammit”.
P.S. Nice post to YouTube!!!
Drop the M, it should be OOCs | And He Blogs
[...] That’s why I was encouraged to see King and Nanfito apply the MOOC idea to small liberal arts colleges/universities (kinda like the one I work at). The point, they say, is that “MOOCs, after all, were originally intended to provide for engagement and collaboration.” Whether massive or not, they are tools to provide connectedness and engagement. As they point out the original MOOC included Aggregation, Remixing, Repurposing, and Feeding Forward. The underlying philosophy of UMW Blogs was to accomplish all four of those goals. It continues today with numerous examples and we in DTLT talk about it constantly. It exists today most conspicuously in a very real course known as DS106 (digital storytelling). And it has long begun to go massive in a much more positive and organic way – by others freely adopting and adapting it. [...]