Even though I am not a student from IST department, I sure did have a very great time participating the 2013 IST conference . This conference has become the highlight of my week for sure :) Thanks to every IST people who make so many efforts in organizing this event.
During the reception diner, I joined Dr. Curt Bonk's talk in regard to MOOC. I was pretty confused at the beginning because I had never heard of MOOC before...actually it was until I went home and checked it online did I realize MOOC, Massive Open Online Courses, is a general term for online course systems rather than one specific website like Udacity or edX... Still, it is good to learn what MOOC is, its business potential, learning potential, and how it may change the game of higher education. I checked some of the MOOC websites (Udacity, HarvardX...) I really like their website design. In each course, they provide a introductory video at the beginning, which is visually appealing and creative. The Introduction to Computer Science course definitely used the common craft technique.They also provide class summary, skill requirement (There is no prior programming knowledge needed for this course!! <-- This sentence makes this course so appealing to me), and what knowledge we will acquire after completion. These designs no doubt make the course attempting for learners.
In today's conference, one of the most interesting sessions I attended was Khendum Gyabak's round table which talked about "digital tools utilized to enhance literacy practices among the digitally under-served population". This is a very meaningful research and I like the idea of empowering students through creating their digital stories. Though I like her research very much, I sort of played the devil's advocate and challenged some of her points, after all, I am literacy education majored, should not let people get away from this topic too easily lol. Khendum answered my questions very well, which I felt I should totally learn from her. But at the same time, all the presenters did a great job and I totally learned a lot from everyone of them. Great experience. My mind has been fed :)
I'm sorry I didn't put together who you were before the IST conference! I'm so bad with names and faces matching together. I'm glad you had fun, and it's good you challenged points! Even when you agree with something, you should always question, if for nothing else than the sake of other people who might be listening. I just had an argument with someone who was presenting something as absolute truth, while referencing an article they obviously didn't read entirely, because when I just glanced through it, I saw several things that went against what they claimed. Everything should be questioned, and everything should be challenged, it stimulates us and keeps us looking.
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