On MOOCs part 2

On MOOCs

On MOOCs

MOOC represents Massive Open Online Courses, it was coined by Dave Cormier from the University of Prince Edward Island in 2008. Today, most MOOCs share the following characteristics:

1.       They can either be massive with a few hundred to several thousand students in a course simultaneously.

2.       Interactions through blogs, portfolios, websites, social networking sites and more.

3.       Course content is not found in only one place but can be found all over the web

4.       Course participants are distributed all over the world.

5.       Most MOOCs are free but there may be a fee of for accreditation programs.

6.       Participants and Instructors aggregate, remix, and repurpose the content

7.       The courses do not have specific requirements but participants must stay up to date with rough schedules

In 2011 Stanford University offered an Artificial Intelligence course online. 160,000 registered students from 190 countries. 23,000 completed the course, 248 of those (not Stanford students) earned 100% on the score.  

MOOCs are become popular because the online experience improves as technology evolves, the high cost of education causes people to look for cheaper forms of education, and MOOC allows participants to build professional and and personal skills sets in their own time. 

Some famous MOOCs include Coursera, edx, udemy, and KhanAcademy. 

On Our Google Conference

The Google Conference! It was impressive, almost unbelievable, I couldn’t believe that I was participating in such a complex meeting. I can’t wait to try it out with my family members from Mexico, but in order for that to happen I will need to learn how to invite people to chat and teach my aunts and cousins how to set up a Google account and do a bunch of neat stuff on it. I know for sure my grandmother and mom will LOOOVE it because purchasing calling cards to Mexico is time consuming and expensive. Plus, this would be way better than calling because we can actually hear the other person and see their facial movements and it’s almost like were in the room, plus we can invite my other family members from Los Angeles, Texas, New York and Chicago in on our calls. I’m getting excited just thinking about how this can actually happen and I’m forgetting to respond to the actual experience. I wish I could have had the conference on my iPhone, that would have been awesome, but then again if that were possible I would have looked awkward talking to my phone on the bus hahaha, plus I wouldn’t have learned all the neat stuff I learned. I learned how to view the same documents, the same videos, and how to wear artificial hats online. I was in our room by myself, but honestly I felt like everyone was there because as soon as I was disconnected accidentally the first time and when we said our goodbyes, the emptiness of the room all of a sudden became evident. Overall, it was an awesome experience and I can’t wait to try it again.

On Making Meatloaf

Perhaps the most surprising dish I have made so far has been meatloaf. Never in my right mind would I ever imagine myself making meatloaf! The reason why I decided to attempt this dish was because my attempt to make flour tortillas and Chile Verde were not what I expected. And the most infuriating part is that I can’t taste my own cooking, not for another ten days anyway. I took a look at my Chile Verde and I took a look at my tortillas and decided that the best thing to do in such an ugly situation was to combine the two and serve it on a platter, but because I was unimpressed with myself I decided to add in a Meatloaf as well. I have been following two individuals on Twitter, Hilah and Nicko. I followed Hilah’s recipe on making flour tortillas and I really liked her YouTube channel because she is so funny and nonchalant about cooking. After pinning various of her videos on Pinterest, I found a video of her visiting with another chef, Nicko. Nicko is from Australia and also has a YouTube channel of his own. Wow, his food is amazing. They both made meatloaf seem so easy, just mix a bunch of ingredients together and pop it into the oven. Since I have a small toaster oven, and since I made two loafs, baking these to perfection was nearly impossible. I think they were on the oven for about three hours rather than one and a half. I concluded that the next time I make this dish, I will put the meat loafs into the oven for about an hour and a half first and then add the ketchup-mustard-barbecue sauce that goes over it for the last hour and a half, this way the top of the loafs don’t burn. My boyfriend seemed to like it. It was the dish he seemed to enjoy the most so far. Apparently, he thinks that I can only cook deliciously when he’s in the kitchen bugging me since the Spanish rice I made with him around me was actually the most delicious thing I’ve made on the first try.

On Making Flour Tortillas

This was a complete disaster! First, I should have poured the warm milk onto the bowl slowly as I stirred the dough with a fork. Secondly, I should have let the dough sit for a couple of minutes before I used my hands to mix the dough more. Thirdly, I should have allowed the dough to rest for 20 minutes rather than half an hour because according to my mother-in-law who came over later on, “it is best to let it rest for just a few  minutes when the weather is cold and for half an hour or so when it is warm out.” The young girl on the video allowed the dough to rest for thirty minutes, so I decided to do the same thing. The fourth mistake I made was that I added too much flour while I was rolling the dough into flat tortillas. The fifth mistake I made is in the way I rolled the dough, some of the tortillas I made resembled stars, triangles, and even horses rather than circles. And the fifth, mistake I made was to leave some of the tortillas on the fire for far too long. Because of these five, and probably more mistakes, my tortillas tasted extremely floury and according to my boyfriend resembled the taste and texture of a pita bread rather than flour tortillas. While making the dough, I did make a myriad of adjustments that the young girl from the video did not use. For example, I decided to use margarine instead of oil and I decided to warm up the milk rather than use room temperature milk. I’ve decided that since the tortillas have been the most horrible thing I’ve made so far, I will follow the young lady’s instructions word for word the next time I try making them. I have decided to make Chile Verde burritos in which I filled the tortillas with the Chile Verde that I made before and cut them up into small pieces with toothpicks stabbed into them so that everyone can have a taste. This way, everyone can have a chance to try my awful cooking tomorrow without tellling how terrible my tortillas looked J.

On Cooking Toni’s Chile Verde

I can't upload the videos :( 

This was a fantastic recipe, and my boyfriend said he loved the texture and that the taste wasn’t too bad either. Unfortunately, my overtly-honest boyfriend admitted that he wished the recipe was a bit spicier. The funny thing is that as I was making the salsa, I questioned the use of only two jalapenos. I’ve seen my family use various chilies when making salsa, and I wondered if I should add any more jalapenos or more red hot chili peppers since there is an abundance of them in the fridge an on our counter. Unfortunately, I convinced myself that it was probably not the best idea for me to screw up the recipe by adding my own ingredients. I wish I would have listened to myself because I would have loved it if Toni loved the platter the first time I made it. My mother-in-law tasted it as well, and apparently it was yummy. She even told people about it. Heck, I called my family to show off too. The next time I cook Chile Verde, I will do three things differently: First, I will add more chilies and leave their seeds on the salsa since that makes the dish spicier. Secondly, I will use less garlic, because even now as the left-overs sit cold in the fridge, there is a stronger smell of garlic than chili. And Finally, I will let the minced garlic and onion brown a little longer before adding the chicken broth and olive oil. Overall, I had a great time cooking it and I can’t wait to share some of it with my dear Education 578 group. Because I didn’t follow my intuition on adding more chilies on my Chile Verde platter, I decided to follow my own taste while making flour tortillas and meat loaf. It worked wonders for my meat loaf, wish I could say the same about the flour tortillas :/

On Updating my 20% Project

Cooking is definitely not for me!!! In theory, I shouldn't be too bad. I remember when I was younger I helped my mom wash vegetables and stir pots and watched her as she heated up home-made tortillas. We would dance around the kitchen and she would let me help. It was nice. So why do I suck?? Up top you’ll see two different pans. The dark food = the burnt up onions and garlic intended for the Spanish rice. The lighter food= the “toasted” onions and garlic I actually used on the rice. The YouTube video I used to guide me only said, “stir until your vegetables are nice and toasted,” but it didn't show me what “toasted” would look like, they simply threw in the rice shortly after. When someone says “toasted” I imagine toast bread, so not only did I leave the vegetables toast, I allowed a little black to accumulate. My boyfriend came in the kitchen, and said, “that doesn't looked toasted to me that looks and smells burnt.” Unfortunately for me he didn't leave the kitchen. He stayed the whole way through, which bothered me because not only did I have to chop more onion (ugh) but I had him correcting me the whole way. “Babe, the lady on the video said to use medium chopped onion, you’re cutting them up too thinly.” But I guess I rather have him regulating than his mother, who showed up later to eat my rice. My boyfriend liked my rice, but if you ask me I have a feeling it was more because he feels he had a great deal to do with the taste and everything he does is “amazing.” My mother-in-law on the other hand told me it could use a little more salt and a little less garlic. Moral of this first attempt: that’s the last time I cook in this house  I already made arrangements with my Grandmother who will let me use her kitchen on Wednesday and won’t tell anyone about it. I can’t wait!

On Reaching Day #40

 

I haven’t shared this with many people but today I am so happy that I can’t wait to share my good news. For 40 days now, I have been juicing fresh fruits and vegetables straight from my juicer at home. I’ve been eating nothing else! About a month and a half ago, I was browsing through my Netflix, when I came across the film “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead,” by Joe Cross. Joe Cross began this documentary film weighing at a whopping 310 pounds and was severely sick because of it. His unhealthy diet was slowly killing him. The entire film followed him as he juiced for sixty days in an attempt to gain his health back. Although after his sixty days he began implementing other foods into his diet, he continued eating healthy and helped others begin their journeys as well. I decided I’d do the same. I won’t share how much I used to weigh, because that would just be seriously mortifying. I will, however, say that I am now 30 pounds lighter and happier. Initially, I only wanted to juice for ten days, but when I saw my results on the scale, I decided to juice for three weeks. Three weeks turned into a month, a month turned into 40 days, and 40 days turned into, “What the hey, go for the sixty days.” So here I am. Every morning I wake up excited and energized to continue on this difficult journey, but ever night I go to sleep dreaming of biting into a carne asada taco or my gramma’s enmoladas. I seriously don’t know how much more of this torture I can take, but I hope I have the strength to see the sixty days through.  

On What I think learning looks like

One of the most embarrassing things about not owning my own vehicle is that I have to ride the bus in the mornings, and the bus is usually packed with San Diego High School students. When they spot me there are two usual reactions: One is for them to turn away from me without greeting me as if I were a parent trying to invade their privacy, and the second is for them to go right towards me and begin awkward conversations with me. Putting the awkwardness aside, I enjoy getting to know my students on a more personal level and I love that they feel comfortable sharing their thoughts with me.

One morning, I found a seat at the back of the bus, and I noticed two girls giggling over a book. I recognized one of the girls because she is in one of the classes where I am currently completing my practicum. They were both sitting next to each other at first. The student I work with was reading a book and her friend, sitting next to her, was listening to her iPod. The girl reading the book, couldn’t squelch a giggle so she poked her friend to get her attention. Her friend took her left earphone out and looked at the page where he friend was pointing at. They read the book together on their way to school, giggling about its content. About three stops before the high school, I slightly interrupted them, “Hey, I was wondering if it would be OK for me to take a picture of you girls. You see, one of my teachers asked me once what I think learning looks like, and I couldn’t help but notice how you are both reading the book together and giggling about it.” Although I can tell they thought it was a weird request, they allowed me to take a picture of them reading the book. The awkward thing is that when I finally did take a picture of them reading, the essence of learning was already gone, mainly because I had interrupted the genuine thing. I was still very happy to be able to freeze it in time though.

On Cultivating my PLN

Oops, so I had written my list and showed it to my instructor, but I failed to post it on a blog. Based on experience and taste, this is my own personal PLN checklist (as of now anyway because the more I get the hang of it, the more I must explore): 1. Make an effort to tweet out at least once or twice a day 2. Check Edmodo every other day to keep track of due work 3. Respond to my peers’ posts 4. Pin the various videos I will use from You Tube on Pinterest 5. Make a list of the various ingredients needed for the 20% project 6. Write at least two independent blog posts, apart from the required posts a week 7. Connect myself to Mexican food networks on Twitter and follow up on their recipes and share recipes on twitter 8. Begin experimenting with cooking and write about my experiences 9. Document my 20% project on Pinterest and tweet out my experience 10. Learn to download videos on You Tube 11. Participate in an Edchat

On the Essence of Connected Learning

About a year ago, I worked closely with an English teacher at San Diego High School. I was a Special Education Assistant in her class and helped her with her special needs students. I was shocked to learn that there was a particular student, Rhonda Spencer, who would come into our second period class about five minutes late every day. She would walk straight to the back of the classroom, get a laptop out of the laptop cart, take out her earphones, and surf the net the whole period. The teacher expected nothing from her and the students also learned to ignore her. Whenever I asked Rhonda to attempt to do work, she would yell at me and recite all sorts of bad names and bad words my way. I decided to speak to her case manager, who told me that there was an unofficial agreement with the teacher, special ed provider, and student for her to sit in the back of the room and surf the net so long as she was not disrespectful or disruptive to the class. There was nothing I can do, I wish those adults who were in charge of her education could watch this movie. Our Educational System is more focused on our outcomes, what do we want children to learn? And then everything we teach them is centered on that. Children’s interests and strengths are rarely considered. In the little time that I worked with Rhonda, I noticed how beautifully she drew. She also had an amazing imagination. For each episode of “The Walking Dead” that she watched on TV, she would collaborate with one of her classmates and write a mock script predicting what might happen on the next episode. I think Rhonda’s teachers and I could have helped her better if we would have been focused on bringing a community of people who want to learn together and focused on that rather than on content material. The clear message was that she was in the way of others’ learning and therefore had no place in the classroom, it’s embarrassing to know that I worked for educators who do that 

On being a learner or a student

This question should be easy enough to answer. I am both a learner and a student. When I am at home or enjoying leisure time, I love reading novels and doing research about the historical period in which the novel takes place and in which the author wrote it. I love making connections between the characters and the people of their time. I especially love comparing them to how life is in my community/family structure/era. There are no limits as to what I can and can’t learn, there are no deadlines or expectations. I can be a fabulous learner. As a student however, I have always struggled. As terrible as it may sound, I decided to be a student for the mere fear of becoming what the majority of the women in my family have become: young mothers, cholas, or married to an abusive man. I have sought school merely to escape poverty and violence. All this time I thought I was intrinsically motivated to be different, but as I listen to my peers, I am more extrinsically motivated. I have sought education to escape a horrible reality in hopes to inspire other Hispanic students to do the same. I have a feeling that I may not be the greatest person for this job. I feel like my peers are a lot more passionate about education than me. Where I seek it for survival, others seek it because they are passionate about it. I am not passionate about discipline, deadlines, or taking interest in what others tell me to take interest in. I am more passionate about going my own way, to study others without sharing my analysis, and listening to others without being questioned myself. I enjoy being invisible. I don’t think I know a teacher who feels the same why as I do. I know I can inspire my future students to be great learners, but the world wants great students. I can only hope I have what it takes to direct them in the right way.

On taking time to reflect

Someone who’s not in this class did ask me what I’ve learned in this course so far. I told him that I thought I learned a lot, I learned how to create a blog and how to write posts on it, something that was unimaginable for me before. I also learned how to respond to my peers’ posts. I continued sharing that when I finally become an English teacher, I will require my students to set up a Google account and create a blog so that they can write their homework on there instead of wasting and killing off trees. I find it to be a faster and easier way for our class to be connected even out of class. I also informed him, however that after speaking to my instructor, I am not meeting the required expectations of the course. I am not keeping up with all my written blogs, and I am not tweeting. When he asked me why I wasn’t doing the expected work, I went silent. For such a long time, my excuse has been, “because I hate computers and technology.” But now, I can’t say the same thing anymore because now that I understand a little of what I am doing, I enjoy it. I still strongly dislike Twitter, and know that I need to begin tweeting and sharing and reposting stuff. Because I have not done so, I am lagging way behind my classmates and have very little proof of my learning process, mainly because I have not learned much in the twitter department. This is a problem because in order for me to be able to use Diigo or Storify, I am going to need to tweet. If I were a person who naturally enjoyed and understood the virtual realm, this class may be a bit easier for me. Not only do I lack the knowledge and the confidence to start up, let alone maintain, a virtual life but I lack the passion for it. I like having a checklist, examples of what the teacher expects from me, for example: How many tweets a day/week/month is expected? How many independent blogs should I be posting? When responding to my peers’ posts, what exactly am I looking for to respond to? The one good thing about this though, is that it can only get better. I look forward to advancing to be where I need to be. I look forward to growth, and even though its uncomfortable, it will only make me that much more effective as an educator.