Starting the year with two other MOOCs: CCK11 and LAK11 !

Inspired by positive perceptions from the last fall’s MOOCs,  I decided to participate in two open online courses this spring:

"Connectivism and Connective Knowledge" (CCK11) By George Siemens and Stephen Downes and

"Learning and Knowledge Analytics" (LAK11) by George Siemens and Dave Cormier. 

#CCK11 started last week and will last for 10 more weeks until April 11^th 2011. The weekly topics seem interesting and I would like to learn from them to widen my knowledge of connectivism and connective learning and their applications into practice in the era of digital connectedness. On the other hand, because connectivism is the main underlying theoretical perspective in my research on PLE and open online learning networks, I hope this course will help me better understand what connectivism can bring into educational practices and learning in this connected world.  

#LAK11 began two weeks ago and will be continuing until the mid of February. Although, I am concentrating more on #CCK11 than this one but, I am following the LAK11’s  activities and attending the synchronous sessions as long as my time allow me. 

My motivation for taking part in these two MOOCs was based on my experiences from open online courses I participated in last fall: PLENK2010 and EC&I831. They were extremely inspiring and engaged me in more online networking and connecting with many people from all parts of the world. Another reason for me to attend these courses is to get more understanding of the open education and networked learning and going through different topics related to them during the course period. I am now quite familiar with the structure of MOOCs and I like the way they are being run, especially synchronous sessions which the course facilitators along with some other experts discuss the weekly topics on Elluminate.  

However, in spite of my willingness, I cannot be involved in all activities in a full potential way but, I am trying to be as active as possible and being engaged in different networks to get most out of them. Perhaps, here I should bring this point that my learning journey and experience with social media and digital tools; integrating them into my research activities and professional development, and the social interactions I had with many people during the last two MOOCs were absolutely incredible.