Another opportunity to learn has come to me through Twitter connections.  An online course, a Massive Open Online Course or MOOC, in this case ETMOOC.  Reading the Introduction and this post by Donna Fry (@fryed) caught my attention as it appears that this course will have some structure and planned content in areas that interest me but also plenty of flexibility to harness the power of the group of people who are participating.  The Google+ community is already being populated by an amazing group of people who come from across the world.   I am enjoying watching the Introductory messages people are posting on Google + as well as via Twitter. The global nature of this course will be a highlight.

So here goes …. my first MOOC which still think it sounds strange but so did Blog and Wiki a while ago! 😉  It seems reasonable at this stage to ask the question, So what is a MOOC?

By way of introduction to the new #etmooc community, I am a teacher in a small primary school in Melbourne Australia.  This year, I am also taking on a coaching role, assisting schools to implement online learning and harness the value of ICT’s.    I have participated in online learning opportunities before, in particular, the State Library of Victoria’s Personal learning Network program.   This opened the world to me and was my introduction to blogging and Twitter, which have transformed my thinking as an educational professional.  The concept of sharing online was scary and still is at times, but the benefits it has given me far outweigh the discomfort I have felt.

I have participated in Reform Symposium’s online learning opportunities as well but never before in a MOOC !  I think this will be a wonderful extension of my previous experience and be another wonderful opportunity to extend my network. The first task is to introduce ourselves and this post and this short Animoto video are my contribution.