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The end before the beginning- What’s up with that?

(photo CC licensed http://bit.ly/1rM3BgX) 2 min read

There is talk of ccourses being over, winding down, lack of tweets… and the last, seemingly most how-to unit has not even begun.

WHAT IS UP WITH THAT?

I really don’t get it. From what I can see the last one is the how-to. It’s like we have been identifying an object from the outside, looking, learning, examining, always finding out more, and now the cover is lifted off. Why would something end before that??

In a community of learning, inquiry, colleagues there doesn’t need to necessarily be a formalised plan that we all follow. There do need to be common underlying goals and aims, but we already have that in teaching. I may be way to idealistic, in thinking that we all will just do things-  but from what (little) I can see there is a HUGE body of emerging work and learning coming out of this. There are always going to be problems with getting people to actively participate – and that can be paralleled to any classroom, or to getting kids to do chores, or getting us to do something – if we see the point and want to then it gets done. Tacky as it sounds, there really is no try. We do. We fail. and We do again, better. Sometimes we succeed. actually, a lot of the time we succeed and sometimes we notice it. The talk of disintegration sounds to me a bit like the kind of talk that comes from not seeing that success.

It all takes time and a huge effort to keep things outwardly going. I have been running my connected course, in my back-garden way – I am not very tech savvy, and haven’t hosted it in a fancy way, don’t have lots of bandwidth to upload and download, but I think it has gone ok. First time and 900 visits this term. That’s ok? That’s how Phonar started… I was hoping to get to 1000, but heck, the course is about creating a curriculum in music and that’s pretty obscure… but it has cool makes like ‘cross-dress a melody’ that should appeal more widely to creative types, so I just need to figure out more how to connect and put things out there. I have huge optimism, just because that’s what makes me tick. I’ve been writing a book too (Fostering Self-efficacy in Higher Education Students)- manuscript is due at the publishers on Feb.2 and man, I have never done anything like that before – way more work than writing a PhD thesis. way. more. And the thing is – the thing I value most about Ccourses is that community. Most of the innovation, the new stuff is done on a limb – slightly alone. Nobody directly around me has time to look at it – not really even to look at the course pages that I have done, so without the gentle and constructive feedback from you lot, I would be a lot more in the dark.

I don’t think that there needs to be a curriculum and a structure to continuing  – besides, we all need a break sometimes, and if it picks up again in a year, then Blamo! We don’t want Christmas, Diwali, or the 4th of July *every day* and the holidays are worth waiting for. Let it be special, but lets keep together – and have a medium for communication. I know that the hashtag is my way to be seen for the people who don’t follow me – or aren’t in my circle (don’t really understand G+ circles.. so I have about 2 in my circles, might even be just me…) and without the hashtag I drop off the radar.

Perhaps it’s time to throw the dog a bone with one last round of Daily Connects that include a sign up for keeping in touch. What do you think?

There are more than just 6 of us, and it is worth more than the analytics can show.

Off to bake cookies, or we don’t get treats in our lunches, and to teach and type – the end of my book won’t write itself!

Happy Monday and Happy December !15733401648_c3bc2d98a3_z

p.s. that’s what I’m making. If you would like the recipe, COMMENT! 😉 and I’ll happily post it.

7 thoughts on “The end before the beginning- What’s up with that?”

  1. I agree. It’s not over. It’s just begun. And we don’t need no stinkin’ plan to forge ahead. Anyhow, not just yet.

    I’ve still got some blogging to do in the posts I’ve been doing. I’ve got to write a post on the Dec 1 webinar, for one thing. There’s another post or two in the hopper. And then I’ll wrap a bunch of posts into an PDF which people can then download from my Academia.edu. page. Just what I’ll be doing after that, I don’t know yet.

    And it’ll be useful to have some down time in order to regroup for the new year.

  2. What everyone already said. I bet I’m not the only one who has promised herself to go back over all of the readings and makes and activities I missed on the first pass and to use them in my courses going forward. And I’m counting on keeping and adding to the connections made through the course so far. Also: what a great idea to use #ccourses for music! I’ve just been skimming over your melody makes and they are wonderful!

  3. I love this – was just sitting down to compose a post with similar sentiments. For me too the formal course was just the beginning and a catalyst to draw some networks together!

  4. I was just thinking that through the month of December, it would be good to do a random Daily Connect from the site. Share it out, connect with the concept and keep things moving along as best as we can, knowing that these connections will no doubt spill over into something else coming down the road.
    Kevin

  5. Nothing is over, no fat ladies are singing, there is not even a coda in the score. This is actually more the beginning. You already have ventured into your own course, others are just ramping up.

    I suggested to othe facilitators and organizers to avoid using language suggesting the course is over, it seems to me a signal to participants that there is a termination. There need not be.

    The conversation I hope to have is what is the best shape of this community to help all teachers taking in the implementation of a connected course.

    As far as I am concerned, the porch line shall remain on.

  6. Love this! And yes, it’s about the community to me,too, who cares about formal anything,right? The hashtag belongs to us and belongs to no one 🙂

    And definitely it seems like it’s been and can continue to be a solace of supportive constructive innovative others that we cannot find enough of f2f. Why would we wanna lose touch once the formal course is “over”? It was almost never about the formal course for me…

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