I enjoyed a week in Melbourne a few years ago when I attended a conference there. I spent my spare time photographing and making audio recordings at Federation square and around the central city. Great memories!

Thanks for stopping by my blog, Anne-Marie. I’ll watch out for you in cyberspace.

Mark

Dropping an anchor v.s. fly fishing is a helpful image. Imagine that we are wading through different MOOCs that are intertwined like a braided river. We pay close attention to the rippling surfaces, trying to make out what lies beneath, while also noticing the wind, passing clouds, insects, an occasional barking dog, and, in the distance, the piercing sound of an alarm on some idiot’s car. An ever-changing conversation in a large, open landscape (http://goo.gl/PoqbI).

Mark

I like the analogy to urban density and the fact that you still appreciate good grammar and commas. I was also thinking about the difference between dropping an anchor (a traditional classroom) and fly fishing in a stream (a mooc). Keep well and see around our various mooc towns.

Yes, too much work – I bet most of us are gluttons for it. Any sense of ease is entirely misleading. I am a slow reader and, although I like writing, I am a slow writer as well. I’m the kind of person who still puts commas in my email messages (which shows how ill at ease I can be with new forms of communication). I don’t attend many live MOOC sessions, and I certainly don’t try to read everything. I prefer to look at a few things, but to look (and thing) hard. Skimming and then diving in. I don’t catch many fish, but I still end up with more than I can digest.

Mark

I’ve registered for the forums and will try them. It may be just the shared communication space that we need. Blogs are like individual homes. Some conversations are most useful when they are held more publicly, in a community hall. Let’s see what happens . . .

Thanks.

Mark

Thanks for stopping by. The flexibility is a strong point for me (a “non-credit” participant), but there seems to be enough structure and support for anyone who is doing the course for credit and wants to do well.

I just registered for the Forums that Matt set up – it seems very well organized. Knowing where to look for others, and where to leave comments can be difficult when there are so many communication spaces to use. This an interesting (urban) planning problem. Second Life and Active Worlds both suffered from low density urban sprawl. Organic approaches can work well with a small number of participants and territory (mediaeval towns) but can be a problem on a larger scale (Los Angeles). It would be interesting to plot where MOOCers go to chat or leave messages. I wonder what the tracings would tell us?

Mark

You are a brave soul to sign up for a course well outside your comfort zone. Bravo! I have found that at least two of my university colleagues did the Artificial Intelligence course (along with 160,000 others), and I am looking forward to hearing about their experience. It would be great if you reported what you think about the Search Engine course to other MOOCers. Thanks!

Mark

The “factory outlet” is a good comparison. I’d love to read whatever feasibility studies Stanford would have prepared before launching their new initiative. No doubt discussions of brand and reputation enhancement would have figured large. The relationship between the “outlet” and “factory corp.” is a very interesting one, and we can only guess at what their overall strategy might be. Somehow, I doubt that it involves the winding down, or significant transformation, of the mother corp.

Mark