Description of a cMOOC led by professor AR Formiconi, IUL (Italian University Line), April-June 2013

1. Laboratorio di tecnologie
Internet per la scuola: #LTIS13
Internet Technologies for Education
April – June 2013
A cMOOC led by Andreas R. Formiconi
IUL - Italian University Line

2. WHO & WHERE: The Institution
IUL - Italian University Line, http://www.iuline.it
(A partnership of 4 Universities: Milan (Milano Bicocca), Florence,
Palermo, Catania, in collaboration with INDIRE, an Institution that is
part of the Ministry of Education and is concerned with the quality of
the school system, innovation, research and documentation.)
Offering Graduation & Master online courses to teachers.
Giorgio Federici: Director
Andreas R. Formiconi : professor at IUL; Associate Professor at the
Faculty of Medicine, University of Florence.
www.iuline.it
Email:cmooc@iuline.it

3. What is a cMOOC?
C = connectivist
cMOOCs = discursive communities
creating knowledge together
[Martin Lugton, http://reflectionsandcontemplations.wordpress.com
/2012/08/23/what-is-a-mooc-what-are-the-different-types-of-mooc-xmoocs
]

4. 481 registrations

5. Massive OPEN Online Course
• OPEN to whoever happens to come by
and wants to have a try
• OPEN because problems are posed and
solutions given freely among participants
• OPEN because it encourages peer-to-
peer tuition
• OPEN because the use of open-access
software is implemented (PiratePad,
NoBlogs etc)

6. Stated goals…
• learning to live in cyberspace
• learning to learn and teach in cyberspace
• learning to create a learning and
professional training community
• bridging the technological gap between
old and new generations
• assisting final-year high-school students in
choosing a teaching career

7. THE VILLAGE
The metaphor:
Not this…
“something we build together by discovering as we go
what is the next useful thing to do, in everybody's
interest - the single person's as well as the
community's” A. Formiconi

8. Not this….

9. Tent camping in New Hampshire, from www.foresthistory.org
…..but more like this:

10. Then he expected us to…
build houses
build roads
start visiting
plan amenities
start various activities

11. In the form of…
BLOGS
WEB FEED AGGREGATOR
SOCIAL BOOKMARKING
COLLABORATIVE WRITING
whatever…..

12. PLAN vs CREATIVE CHAOS
SUCCESSIVE
TASKS ?

13. The PLAN led to….
• 13 successive tasks
• 42 posts
• 3587 comments
• 23 video tutorials
While from CREATIVE CHAOS…
…5 groups of people emerged, who decided
to do something together in the future

14. Our teacher called these activites…
STREAMS

15. A course about
TEACHING
through explicit description of what he was
going to do and why

16. The power of METAPHORS
Why do we need metaphors? Because education has
lost its original nature, which is that of a mission, and its
purpose, which consists of producing a cultural
vision.
“In Italy education at large is suffering from overuse of
formality and bureaucracy; it's a frozen system tending
to mechanically perpetuate itself, while what education
needs is the ability to become a LEARNING
ORGANIZATION, adapting to the ever faster changes
in our world.
Metaphors, tales, unexpected turns are used to hook
students, hold them and possibly launch them into
new worlds. If they don't turn back and flee, if they
insist in spite of difficulties, then maybe they needed to
be introduced into these worlds...” A. Formiconi

17. KEY CONCEPTS
• FLEXIBILITY … SERENDIPITY
• FOLLOW your INTUITION: learning to let go of things
and follow one's intuition “Knowledge and competence don't stem from
handbooks but from exploration and daily use” A. FORMICONI
• LEARNING is about GROWING, rather than
TAKING SUCCESSIVE STEPS
• EVERYBODY at THEIR OWN PACE

18. KEY CONCEPTS
CO-TEACHING CO-LEARNING
TAKING CARE OF THE COMMUNITY

19. KEY CONCEPTS
• SHOWING ONE’S MISTAKES: mistakes teach!
• LEAVING TECHNOLOGY ASIDE when it is
necessary to ponder and reflect
• LISTENING: “listening is important, and when you
LISTEN, then you have to adapt to demands most
students make, otherwise it isn't real listening. So maybe
the route can change, but my target stays the same, my
target is very clear to me” A. Formiconi
• REVISING and WAITING, so that nobody is left
behind

20. The cMOOC as an
experiment about
LEARNING
“The aim is bridging the gap between teachers and the new
technological generations of students, not just by showing how
tools (devices, software) work – the classical training -, but by
immersing the teachers in the same environment the students
experience, so that they can discover things by themselves.
It's about learning by experiencing. It's about moving to cyberspace
and having a good look around, rather than being instructed.”

21. “Mass university... traditional mass lectures
don't work very well. This is an experiment
about building communities so that mass
classes might be more efficient.” A. Formiconi
“How can a workshop with 400 students be
managed? The central role can't be the
teacher's, with the students patiently queuing to
get their share of attention...” A. Formiconi

22. The problem of TIMING
SURVEYS
SILENCE & WAITING

23. At the end of the course….
Posts published on the blog 2231
Participants who joined the course group in Diigo 83
Tags produced 990
Bookmarks produced 457
50 participants willing to pay to receive University
Credits for the course, after assessment by prof.
Formiconi on the basis of practical participation to
the activities suggested.

24. “A COURSE IS A STORY that
the teacher tells. But in THIS
kind of course, the teacher's
story gradually fades in the
background as the students'
stories slowly emerge...”