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Interesting post<br>
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<td>The Importance of Context and Human Factor in MOOC
Education</td>
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">Date: </th>
<td>Tue, 16 Apr 2013 13:09:19 +0000</td>
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">From: </th>
<td>Educational Technology Debate
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:editors@edutechdebate.org"><editors@edutechdebate.org></a></td>
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">To: </th>
<td><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:satellit@bendbroadband.com">satellit@bendbroadband.com</a></td>
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Importance of Context and Human Factor in MOOC
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<p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px
0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"><span>Posted:</span>
16 Apr 2013 01:37 AM PDT</p>
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<p>Óscar Becerra has just written <cite><a
moz-do-not-send="true" rel="nofollow"
target="_blank"
href="https://edutechdebate.org/massive-open-online-courses/the-one-laptop-per-child-corollation-with-massive-open-online-courses/">The
One Laptop Per Child Correlation With Massive
Open Online Courses</a></cite> where he compares
the OLPC project with MOOC initiatives.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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, <strong>education is about empowerment</strong>.
</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 <em>worsen</em> one’s situation with a
given tool, e.g. laptops or MOOCs. We call this the
<a moz-do-not-send="true" rel="nofollow"
target="_blank"
href="http://ictlogy.net/bibliography/reports/projects_list.php?filter_tag_project=knowledge%20gap"><strong>knowledge
gap hypothesis</strong></a> 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?</p>
<p>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 <a
moz-do-not-send="true" rel="nofollow"
target="_blank"
href="http://ictlogy.net/20120930-transforming-institutions-in-the-knowledge-society-a-matter-of-e-awareness/">having
the <strong>objective and the subjective choice
of development</strong></a> (to which we have to
add effective choice, of course).</p>
<p>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).</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 <em>alternatives</em>
to the educational system. Not by themselves.</p>
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