Edupunks, MOOCs and Non-Human Appliances

Me (SixChick 🙂 ): Right on man! All that fab knowledge emergin’ from CCK11 – real solid so I’ll be writin’ about it on my blog here – unify it with the old Pavlov dog stuff an then rewrite the Wikipedia article! An then I’ll . . . . . .
Gordo: Oh no you won’t!! GET OFF MY BLOG !!
Me: Don’t flip your wig Gordo – like, you said, an I quote, “This will probably be my last post here!” – so here I am Daddy-O!
Gordo: I didn’t mean for YOU take it over SixChick!
Me: Bummer! Then why you bugged out real fast? – LURKER !!
Gordo: I thought you approved of lurking and come to think of it I thought you weren’t too happy with connectivism.
Me: Connectivism – A Theory for the Digitally Aged – heh! – suits a Chrome Dome like you, Gordo! But don’t sweat it man – I’ve seen the light an now I’m bringin’ the theory smack up to date.
Gordo: Look SixChick, Connectivism’s still a controversial theory. You should keep an open mind.
Me: My mind is my Personal Learning Network and that’s as open as can be – oozin’ out knowledge from every connection – day and night!.
Gordo: Well OK, at least you’ve managed to organize a PLN – how big is it now?
Me: 131,072 nodes.
Gordo: Eh? ….. you must be joking! How can you interact with that many or even remember people’s names?
Me: No prob – there’s FFace1, FFace2, FFace3, ….. right on up to FFace131,072. We calls ourselves ‘The Tetchy Connectivists’ an we’re sorta groovy guardians of the faith.
Gordo: Good grief! But you can’t deal with over 100,000 people!
Me: There’s not that many people – most of ’em got thrown off the server for bein’ snarky – the rest are non-human appliances.
Gordo: You’ve set up a network of ‘bots, SixChick !! You could be in real trouble!
Me: Don’t have a cow Gordo! They’re busy now but when the time comes ….. we tip the wink an bring down every revisionist blog in town!

Gordo: Revisionist?
Me: Yeah there’s a deviant clique undermining the very foundations of Connectivism. Egged on by capitalists an bankers these cats are chippin’ away at the very meaning of key words like there’s no Wittgenstein!
Gordo: What on earth are you talking about? What words?
Me: ‘Edupunk’ and ‘MOOC’ for starters!
Gordo: I know there’s been some controversy about ‘edupunk’ but nobody owns words – their meanings can’t be cast in stone.
Me: Oh yes they can! My Group, I mean Network, is gonna make sure of that!
Gordo: Well if you want to know what I think, I think it’s time to move on. There’s a need to keep moving, try out different ideas etc. The early edupunks are victims of their own success. They do, and continue to do, a great job in raising awareness – and surprise, surprise, the concepts are mutating! IMHO it’s very understandable how a certain amount of techiness has blown up but there’s plenty room for pragmatism of every variety on the very wide web and everyone including veteran MOOCers like me ought to pull together and …..
Me: Meanwhile Back At The Ranch! Yeah! yeah! – cut the lip flappin Gordo! Veteran Moocer? What you ever do for MOOCs apart from that stoopid MOOC Cow infographic? There’s only one True Way an the Tetchy Connectivists are on to it. Look what happened to free software!
Gordo: Yes just look …. and I’ll have you know that my CCK11 blog was not unnoticed. I admit that the Cow [“an awesome image” – Jim Groom,  “defining image of the course” – George Siemens] got rather more attention than my textual pontifications but that’s beside the point – I learned a lot in the process. Anyway, what about MOOCs?

Me: Same thing man – they’re tryin’ to take them over but it’s no way Hosay!
Gordo: Um – aren’t you getting a little carried away SixChick? There’s lots going on now with Online Learning Events (OLEs as I call them) of different types. Variation is to be expected – and a good thing too! The first connectivist MOOCs successfully demonstrated how large numbers of like-minded people could be connected together for learning purposes but many unanswered questions remain so the more experimentation the better – every massive OLE doesn’t have to be a Connectivist one.
Me: If it’s massive it’s a hairy MOOC – if it isn’t chaotic an confusing an without groady learning objectives it needs to get that way real quick!
Gordo: Look SixChick – why don’t you join in one of the new OLE’s and make your own unique contribution?
Me: Hah! – but I am man – I found a real righteous MOOC on Artificial Intelligence.
Gordo: That’s great news SixChick! I’m sure you can make a positive contribution. You do know that more than 132,000 people have registered already for that course?
Me: Yeah, there’s me an FFace1, FFace2, …. an FFAce99396, just registered this very second! Hip cats every one of us!
Gordo: SIXCHICK !!!!
Me: Seeya later alligator!