By Graeme Paton. Many students are ill-prepared for the world of work because degrees such as science and engineering are being “delivered on paper” without real life experience, the Universities Minister has warned.
Courses in practical subjects are often too theoretical and appear to have “lost touch with the reality of modern business”, according to David Willetts.
In an interview with the Telegraph, he outlined radical plans designed to raise standards in core disciplines such as science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) that are seen as vital to the economic recovery. More...
Moodle MOOC 2: Habits of Effective Connected Learners
Habits of Effective Connected Learners by Stephen Downes
Working and learning in an online environment is fundamentally different from working and learning in a physical environment. It becomes much more important to make connections and leverage the store of knowledge at your disposal. Relations between people depend more on cooperation and less on collaboration. Information that was valuable only when withheld is now valuable only when shared. Marketing gives way to meaning. In this presentation, Stephen Downes reviews the habits he has cultivated to thrive as a learner and researcher online, providing practical advice from network theory and a lifetime of experience.
Stephen Downes works for the National Research Council of Canada where he has served as a Senior Researcher, based in Moncton, New Brunswick, since 2001. Affiliated with the Learning and Collaborative Technologies Group, Institute for Information Technology, Downes specializes in the fields of online learning, new media, pedagogy and philosophy.
Downes is perhaps best known for his daily newsletter, OLDaily, which is distributed by web, email and RSS to thousands of subscribers around the world, and as the originator of the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). He is a popular speaker, appearing at hundreds of events around the world over the last fifteen years. He has published hundreds of articles both online and in print through two decades of research and development into learning networks and related technologies. More...