{"id":8691,"date":"2015-05-18T03:00:23","date_gmt":"2015-05-18T10:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/?p=8691"},"modified":"2015-06-16T16:32:59","modified_gmt":"2015-06-16T23:32:59","slug":"in-june-a-unique-chance-for-educators-to-renew-remix-reimagine-at-clmooc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/in-june-a-unique-chance-for-educators-to-renew-remix-reimagine-at-clmooc\/","title":{"rendered":"In June, a Unique Chance for Educators to Renew, Remix, Reimagine at CLMOOC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up today<\/a> for the 2015 CLMOOC!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

During the first Connected Learning Massive Open Online Collaboration (CLMOOC), in 2013, participants were encouraged to make a map. Michael Weller of the Los Angeles Writing Project turned to Realtime Board<\/a>, a whiteboard-like online tool. He mapped out his students\u2019 use of technology, as well as his own patterns as a learner and a teacher.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis led to another insight,\u201d he wrote on his blog<\/a>. \u201cI was doing most of the technology use in my classroom…Obviously, I needed to shift the balance toward greater student use of digital tools.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the eve of its third iteration, CLMOOC<\/a> has expanded, but the idea remains the same: the free informal event engages educators in making and sharing, online and off. During weekly \u201cMake Cycles,\u201d they receive project prompts, which they can follow closely or tangentially. Projects range from the playful to the thought-provoking and, as in Weller\u2019s case, often inspire educators to reimagine their professional practices.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s CLMOOC begins on June 18, the start of the White House\u2019s Week of Making<\/a>. During each of the six weekly Make Cycles, participants attend webinars and share their makes with one another on different social platforms.<\/p>\n

The program embodies connected learning principles, and particularly encourages interest-driven learning. National Writing Project<\/a> (NWP) senior program associate Christina Cantrill recalled the moment NWP staff first understood what interest-driven learning meant for educators. It happened during the development phase, when CLMOOC creators sought input from advisers, including New York City Writing Project teacher-leader Paul Allison.<\/p>\n

\"In<\/a>

In one Make Cycle, participants had to create memes about the soccer player Luis Suarez. Photo: Benjamin David<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018Remember, this is in the summer months, and educators are interested in things other than educating,\u2019\u201d Cantrill said. \u201cWhether that\u2019s gardening, kayaking, or making homemade bread. That has stuck with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The diversity of participants is reflected in the diversity of approaches to prompts. Take last year\u2019s assignment to hack a toy. One educator, also a mother, took one of her son\u2019s many action figures and doused it in chalkboard paint. She invited other participants to draw something on the newly blank canvas, and the toy ended up traveling via snail mail from educator to educator, \u201cFlat Stanley<\/a> style,\u201d said Denver Writing Project<\/a> teacher-consultant Joe Dillon, a CLMOOC coordinator.<\/p>\n

During another week, participants designed games. Infuriated by recent news that Facebook had conducted secret psychology tests on its users, Assistant Professor of Education Ian O\u2019Byrne<\/a> of the University of New Haven created a satirical digital game called Facepalm<\/a>. He asked participants to provide personal responses\u2014consensually\u2014to psychology tests. It served as critical commentary as well as a useful collection of data.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of CLMOOC is to tap into things that are already happening in the summer,\u201d Cantrill said. Last summer, a Make Cycle about memes inspired a discussion about leveraging the power of memes to promote learning, and a contest to create the goofiest meme about Uruguayan World Cup soccer player Luis Su\u00e1rez\u2019s infamous bite.<\/a><\/p>\n

So who is the MOOC designed for?<\/p>\n

\u201cSomebody who really wants to explore and connect,\u201d Dillon said. Beyond that, there are few requirements.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen people who are admitted beginners really flourish,\u201d he said. \u201cOn the other end of the spectrum, folks from higher ed, that teach innovative coursework like digital literacy, often tell us it\u2019s some of the best professional learning they\u2019ve ever had.\u201d With collaboration between elementary school teachers, college professors, afterschool programmers, master tech users, and beginning bloggers, \u201cIt ends up being a pretty dynamic network.\u201d<\/p>\n

The facilitators and designers of CLMOOC know that these different kinds of educators have different schedules and levels of interest. So participants are free to come and go or observe from the sidelines.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have to mortgage your summer,\u201d said Dillon, who also works as the instructional coordinator for educational technology at the Aurora Public Schools<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This year CLMOOC organizers are thrilled about the bigger role they have carved out for Educator Innovator<\/em> partners GlassLab Games<\/a>, KQED<\/a>, and the National Park Service<\/a>. Each partner will facilitate a Make Cycle, and bring expertise related to one of three themes: identity, systems, and public.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe leadership is becoming more and more distributed,\u201d Dillon said.<\/p>\n

Some NWP sites<\/a> will also help lead the sessions: the San Diego Area Writing Project, the Tar River Writing Project, the UNC Charlotte Writing Project, and the University of Illinois Writing Project.<\/p>\n

Participants have been known to start their own spin-off Google+ Hangouts throughout the summer or engage in longer meditations on a week\u2019s topic. The educators often \u201criff off each other,\u201d Cantrill said, continuing work from previous weeks and remixing each other\u2019s projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe connected learning principle that learning should be social is represented in the way people are sharing in a social space,\u201d Dillon said.<\/p>\n

NOTE: You can now sign up<\/strong><\/a> for CLMOOC 2015.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the eve of its third iteration, CLMOOC has expanded, but the idea remains the same: the free informal course engages educators in making and sharing, online and off. Sign up today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":8804,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[47,48,585],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8691"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8691"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9090,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8691\/revisions\/9090"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}