Interesting post
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Subject: The Importance of Context and Human Factor in MOOC Education
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2013 13:09:19 +0000
From: Educational Technology Debate <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Educational Technology Debate
The Importance of Context and Human Factor in MOOC Education
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The Importance of Context and Human Factor in MOOC Education
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Posted: 16 Apr 2013 01:37 AM PDT
Óscar Becerra has just written The One Laptop Per Child Correlation With
Massive Open Online Courses
<https://edutechdebate.org/massive-open-online-courses/the-one-laptop-per-child-corollation-with-massive-open-online-courses/>
where he compares the OLPC project with MOOC initiatives.
In a nutshell, the Becerra argues that MOOC should not be compared to
other higher education initiatives or institutions, but to what MOOCs
can bring to “non-users” of education, as the OLPC should be judged not
in comparison to schools, but in comparison to “non-schools”, that is,
no educational institutions at all.
I mostly agree with the author, but there are some omissions that are
very worth being mentioned… as they may place us, at least, in a more
skeptic point of view. Or, in other words, nor may MOOCs might be
compared with a comprehensive and affordable educational system and
neither should the OLPC be compared with the total lack of alternatives.
First of all, it just happens that education is not about the
apprehension of content, but about transforming information into
knowledge. Or, in other words, *education is about empowerment*.
Quite often forgotten, there are two kinds of MOOCs: connectivist MOOCs
(cMOOCs) and non-connectivist MOOCs (xMOOCs). While I find the former
empowering, the latter I find them not: just an interesting but mere
channel of content distribution. Unfortunately, cMOOCs are rarely dealt
with and only xMOOCs are the ones being discussed. Like the article in
question. Thus, comparing a non-empowering tool like xMOOCs to a
supposedly empowering tool, like the OLPC, is a difficult exercise to do.
Education, empowerment, or development, on the other hand, do not happen
in the void, but in a given context. A personal context. A personal
starting point. And there is increasing evidence that one’s starting
point will tell whether one will improve or /worsen/ one’s situation
with a given tool, e.g. laptops or MOOCs. We call this the *knowledge
gap hypothesis*
<http://ictlogy.net/bibliography/reports/projects_list.php?filter_tag_project=knowledge%20gap>
and there are many examples on how public libraries, access to
newspapers and information, or laptops in the classroom have a
multiplier effect: if you’re in a good position, you’ll do better; if
you’re in a bad position, you’re very likely to do worse. So, what is
the position of these “non-users” that have now access to the OLPC
device or to a (c)MOOC?
Last — and very related with the previous point —, development or
empowerment is not only about the existence of individual resources and
the possibility to use them, but the personal will or emancipative value
to want to use them. Welzel, Inglehart & Klingemann called this the
having the *objective and the subjective choice of development*
<http://ictlogy.net/20120930-transforming-institutions-in-the-knowledge-society-a-matter-of-e-awareness/>
(to which we have to add effective choice, of course).
Indeed, our last point summarizes the first point (access to MOOCs seen
as objective choice) and the second one (the knowledge gap hypothesis as
subjective choice).
And there are two common issues in our three points: context and the
human factor. Context of the user, both the exogenous context (the
socio-economic status, their community, etc.) and the endogenous context
(level of education, mental and physical health, etc.), both of them
determining what will happen with the objective choice. And the human
factor as the facilitator or enabler, which will guide the objective
choice through subjective choice into effective choice — again
determined by the context provided by legal and cultural framework.
So, MOOCs can be compared to the OLPC in the sense that they both
provide good tools to “non-users” of education, but I would refrain
myself to say that they both, by themselves, provide rough
/alternatives/ to the educational system. Not by themselves.
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