Riding the MOOC wave

Have just finished chairing the 2012 iteration of the annual CDE conference - this year with an extended title of Research and Innovation in Distance Education and eLearning. The title was perhaps the most radical change in our one-day conference that has fallen into a regular but highly successful format of keynotes at the beginning and end of the day, sandwiching parallel morning presentation with short sharp workshop sessions in the afternoon. Our keynotes were given first by Diana Laurillard on 'Teaching as a Design Science' which  on the pedagogical pattern collector and the learning designer tools. With Steve Wheeler completing the day with a rapid fire presentation on cutting edge ideas and thinking out there on the Web. Quote of the day, was deservedly won by Diana who, in describing the new breed of online lecture-  exemplified by the TED talk - filed these under ... "cute guy in designer jeans striding around the stage". Of note was a particularly stimulating session by Ormond Simpson titled 'You be the judge - ethics dilemmas in distance education' and is one session that we want to repeat next year. And to summarise ... as was with "Web 2.0" several years ago, the touchstone at the moment is the "MOOC" and no self respecting presenter can speak without at having at least one slide on MOOCs and a comment to go with it.

 Related links:
CDE website link: http://cdelondon.wordpress.com
OLDS MOOC website: http://www.olds.ac.uk/