Open Education, Media Literacy and MOOCs: Issues for teaching practice, from the ecology of the media

Siqueira, Alexandra Bujokas de

doi:10.1590/1980-6248-2019-0023EN

Acessibilidade / Reportar erro

Brasil

Español English

sumário « anterior atual seguinte »

Sumário

Articles • Pro-Posições 33 • 2022 • https://doi.org/10.1590/1980-6248-2019-0023EN copy

Open Education, Media Literacy and MOOCs: Issues for teaching practice, from the ecology of the media ¹ 1 Responsible editor: Mauricio Ernica. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9911-7011 ² 2 References correction and bibliographic normalization services: Maria Thereza Sampaio Lucinio – thesampaio@uol.com.br ³ 3 Funding: The author would like to thank the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais for the scholarship granted in the Programa Pesquisador Mineiro, which founded the insternship in the English The Open University, which originated this article. Funding FAPEMIG (Process APQ 00110-18). ⁴ 4 English version: Viviane Ramos - vivianeramos@gmail.com

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Abstract

The technology of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course) has become a prominent galaxy within the universe of open online education, especially after universities of the size of Harvard, Standford and MIT have invested millions of dollars in the creation of their platforms. Like any disruptive technology, MOOCs are still a volatile world, which requires thorough investigation and renew the discussion of the teacher's role. This text seeks to contribute to this debate, addressing four fronts. A brief history of the MOOCs was constructed so that that one can have a structural view of the practices and contradictions inherent to the phenomenon. Next, a critical assessment of the scenario is made, confronting disputed discourses about the innovative character or not of massive open online courses and what academic research has discovered about the phenomenon. The evidence paves the way for a discussion about the "learning designer" teacher, who is necessarily skilled in media and information literacy. Once versed in the culture of MOOCs, it is up to them if, how, and when to join the technology.

Keywords
Open Education; Media and Information Literacy; MOOCs

Key concept	Description
Language	This concept teaches that the meaning of messages is not obvious, but the result of a series of technical and symbolic procedures that reconstruct reality in the structure of the message. Pedagogical activities are planned to move from an idea of transparency to an analytical and questioning approach, on how the meaning was built through the articulation of verbal and non-verbal codes. One should separate denotation from connotation leading to a description of elements that compose a message and the order in which these elements are displayed to, based on these evidences, interpret the meanings that emerge from the specific arrangements of language.
Audiences	Investigate the common idea of lacking critical sense and the absence of mental activity from the public when consuming media culture products. Navigate between two extremes: the assumption of an almighty message and vulnerable audience; and the assumption of almighty spectators and innocuous messages. The pedagogical activities should relate textual structures with the answers given by various interpretive communities, leading to the dialectic understanding of audience behavior that can be alienated, critical, or engaged.
Representation	Guides the flow between the two extremes of common sense, from the concept of messages as mirrors and the fidelity to the idea of fantasy and distortion. To critically study the mechanisms of media representation is less related to the denunciation of supposed fictions translated in reality, than the understanding on how conventions create representations and how such representations vary depending on the intention of the producer and audience expectations.
Institutions	Deals with professional processes of production established during time until they evolve into the “natural way”, thus becoming ideological. It is to recover the historicity of these processes, for example, tracing changes, in the criteria of noticeability, in the parameters of what is ethical or unethical in the entertainment industry or the parameters that separate censorship from media regulation.

Platform	Areas	Title	Learning proposal	Electronic address
Coursera	Computer Sciences Neuroscience	Neural Networks and Deep Learning	Teach how Deep Learning works. Learn to use Deep Learning in apps. Know how to answer basic questions on artificial intelligence in job interviews.	https://goo.gl/Nmxdix
EdX	Urbanism Political Science	CitiesX: The Past, Present and Future of Urban Life	To know perspectives of urbanism in different countries, exploring historical aspects on the emergence of cities, connecting the roles local and national governments play in the development and distortion of cities. Explore cultural contributions of the city in our lives, considering the role of transportation to create an inhabitable city, analyzing public policies, and imagining the future of urban life.	https://goo.gl/fhmX2k
EdX	Medicine Nutrology	Nutrition and Health: Human Microbiome	Learn to relate intestinal health with health in general, learning about the nature of human microbiome, the role of diet, the relation between genes and microbiome and the most recent discoveries on the influence on obesity, diabetes, Irritable bowel syndrome, and even depression. Discuss the importance of academic knowledge on intestinal microbiome on the formulation of health public policies, formation of physicians, and industry regulation.	https://goo.gl/T3QKes
FutureLearn	Communication Sociology	Gender and Celebrity Culture: Global Media, Everyday Lives	Recovering aspects of celebrities’ lives, as princess Diana, David Bowie, Emma Watson, among others, exploring production issues, identity, visibility, activism, and social and cultural changes, fomented by media culture. How is a celebrity made: How do they connect with the construction of identities? “Is the “celebrity feminism” good for gender equality?	https://goo.gl/e6z3rz
FutureLearn	Administration Pedagogy	Professional Development for Early Career Teachers	Develop strategies to manage the workload and demands of professional development. Explore approaches of practices on teaching and learning, and use strategies of ‘Assessment for learning’ (AFL), to effectively map students’ learning progress and needs.	https://goo.gl/mAf9mU
Coursera	Western Philosophy Psychology	Buddhism and Modern Psychology	Present the most recent discoveries on the compatibilities and incompatibilities between Buddhism and modern psychology, with the support of neuroscience. Explore questions raised by scientists. Physiologically, how meditation “works”? Would this understanding validate meditation: Or could the physical explanation hinder the spiritual meaning of the practice? How to scientifically interpret Buddhist statements on the mind, for example, that there is no I, that a great part of perceived reality is an illusion?	https://goo.gl/x1aqSS
Coursera	Visual arts and history	In the Studio: Postwar Abstract Painting	Offer a deeper perspective on the materials, techniques, and the thought of seven post-war artists. Through studio demonstrations and gallery guides, to understand how the studio practice works and see up close how abstract ideas develop. Explore the broader cultural, intellectual, and historical context after WWII, when these artists were active.	https://goo.gl/MaFDYw

xMOOCs

cMOOCs

Have automated platforms and especially designed to support a massive number of participants.
Support streaming videos and other digital resources, in general with copyright and re-use limitations.
Audiovisual material in general is composed by lectures, even if the teacher is not in a conventional classroom.
Use automated evaluation with more frequency, in general with multiple-choice tests, with instant feedback.
Use peer evaluation, providing tasks for participants to be evaluated by other participants. In some cases, the teacher makes general comments on students’ performance, but without focusing on specific cases.
Use external open-education resources but, in general, as a complement.
Grant badges¹⁰ 10 These are verifiable portable digital badges, with metadata that inform the abilities and accomplishments associated to them. In general, they associated an image, shaped as a stamp, to a course or exercise and an issuer, describing the learners’ accomplishments mean. All these information, can be “packed” into an archive that can be latter added to online resumes, personal pages in social networks, etc. or certificates (generally paid) when concluding the course.

Rarely use specific automated platforms.
Organized from a combination of tools, among which open repositories, blogs, tweets, webcasts, connected by hashtags created to each course.
Participants decide what contents to add and discuss. Teacher organizes the collaborations and offers a structural view on what to be produced by students.
In general, there is no systematized evaluation. Participants are invited to make a self-evaluation, using as a reference the proposal of the course.

UNICAMP - Faculdade de Educação Av Bertrand Russel, 801, 13083-865 - Campinas SP/ Brasil, Tel.: (55 19) 3521-6707 - Campinas - SP - Brazil
E-mail: proposic@unicamp.br

Acompanhe os números deste periódico no seu leitor de RSS

[1] 1
Responsible editor: Mauricio Ernica. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9911-7011