What an experience! For all the wonderful comments that have come out of the last bit of writing about the course, I can assure you that no one has enjoyed it more than I have.
The OpenEd Italian Group created a great presentation summarizing their thoughts and feelings about the course. What teacher could ask for a better outcome for their students than:
We have learnt to interact at an international/multicultural level, thinking, commenting on other participants’ posts and dialoguing creatively and critically about current practices and possible alternative practices in open education.
Many of the participants were kind in saying wonderful things about the course. Others were even kinder in pointing directly to ways the course could be improved. I’ll be cataloging these as part of my post-course debrief and will share these in the future.
Lots of folks commented on how learning about OER and copyright was affecting their day-to-day work, teaching, and thinking. This is perhaps the greatest outcome.
Several folks liked the use of blogs and even said they would change their own teaching to work more like this course. Catia and some others thought the blogs were too static. Perhaps there is a way to tweak the assignments to make these more interactive? Either way, I agree that the inclusion of some push (email) and real-time (chat) technologies could improve the course next time it’s taught.
I’m absolutely exhausted here at end-of-term, but wanted to thank everyone who participated. I’ll be digging through the writing again over the holiday / early next term and reporting more about what I find… Please don’t delete your blogs!