giovedì 20 ottobre 2016

Professional Development Autumn 2016

October and  November   2016

Professional  Development  for  Teachers 




From the Europenschoolnetacademy webpage to other  platforms we  have interesting webinars and courses   which can enhance teachers' development: learning online is now part of most of us - life -long learners.
Here are just a few  Moocs or courses:

  • Collaborative  Teaching  and  Learning  

     starting on 24th October   2016

   http://www.europeanschoolnetacademy.eu/web/collaborative-teaching-and-learning


  • Raising Awareness about the Situation of Newly Arrived  migrants   starting on 31st October 2016    

       http://www.schooleducationgateway.eu/it/pub/teacher_academy/catalogue/detail.cfm?sid=26037



I have been so impressed by some platforms that I cannot but try to do more courses. Most of these courses have the same  framework:
- weekly modules
-  a list of sources and  shared  materials by the teachers
-  working on an online activity to be evaluated by peers
-  videos and interesting  lessons online which can be assessed at anytime of the day
-  FB or Twitter chat
-  end of course  certificates
-  badges for the  activities  students have finished


I really think that  Moocs  will be the future of  education as most of educators  are workers and need to work on their self-development and chose when to do it .  Every month we can find new ones, some are good quality while others provide educational opportunities to people living in different parts of the  world who cannot afford to work and study abroad. In Italy we have started some platforms but I think that the most reliable are still the institutional platforms that can offer many  Moocs-   Coursera and Edx are really good and they are trying to specialize more......

More links can be found online   https://www.mooc-list.com/

Are all the  MOOC courses  free?  Yes, .... but.................in some cases if you want to showcase them you need to pay for the certificate of attendance. Futurelearn can offer free courses but  people will always have to pay to get the statement of accomplishment.
I think that we will have to pay for courses online also in the next years: how can universities  provide " free courses" to anybody? The cost of running a platform can be high and I have also faced problems with technology as sometimes we had problems with the assessments or they had to extend the time for assessment as the platform was not  accessible.

It is not the end of  MOOCs but .............we are moving towards a new  generation of courses and MOOCs as  today people are willing to study  from abroad and  I think  that this is a great business.

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