Connections and Reflections from CLMOOC 2014

Making Learning Connected 2014 was an event offered by Educator Innovator and powered by educators from the National Writing Project. The goals of this MOOC—our Massive Open Online Collaboration—was to engage participants in interest-driven, making-centered experiences that embody the principles of Connected Learning. We worked to adopt a collaborative approach and a reflective stance toward the processes of making and learning, and to provide an opportunity for us all to plan for similar experiences in our varied teaching and learning settings.

Throughout the summer we engaged in “Make Cycles” together as a CLMOOC community. Different than units or weekly study topics, Make Cycles are open-ended invitations to make, play, learn and connect. These cycles drew from resources and specialities surfacing throughout our on and offline community, and were designed to spark making and connection—rather than being designed as sequential steps that would lead to mastery of predetermined outcomes. If a particular Make Cycle sparked interest or generated community activity, we encouraged that energy forward. Make Cycles only have start dates, no end dates. This means that anyone can join CLMOOC at any time.

Teams from around the U.S. lead the Make Cycles during the summer of 2014, including National Writing Project educators from the Boise State Writing Project, the Northern California Writing Project, the Kean University Writing Project and the Hudson Valley Writing Project. Two more cycles were led by YouMedia mentors from Maker Jawn in Philadelphia as well as a team of CLMOOC “gamers” alongside mentors from Mozilla’s Webmaker community.

As a shared framework, the Connected Learning principles provide language and tools to support teacher and learner agency. The ideas that emerge from the CLMOOC summer experience help us all move forward with critical and collective conversations. In turn, we can bring these ideas “home” in our own contexts and communities throughout the year.

Reflections and connections abound! This collection highlights some of those we gathered and curated together that 2014 summer.

History of CLMOOC

Kicking off in the summer 2013, educators from the National Writing Project network designed and facilitated CLMOOC to support educators in playing with the design and learning framework of Connected Learning. The Connected Learning framework supports learning as an interest-driven, production-centered activity in networked and peer-based communities and grew out of work of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media and Learning Initiative.

CLMOOC was designed to be a connected learning experience itself—an openly networked, self-sponsored learning collaboration built on notions of a production-centered participatory culture. It was designed as a massive open online collaboration rather than a course, as is typically meant by “MOOC” and its technological design and infrastructure were influenced by other connectivist, open, online opportunities in the larger field of cMOOCs (connectivist Massive Open Online Courses), such as #change11, #etmooc, #DS106, #rhizo. #CLMOOC continues today at CLMOOC.com

Read more about CLMOOC:

• Remix as Professional Learning: Educators’ Iterative Literacy Practice in CLMOOC by Anna Smith, Stephanie West-Puckett, Christina Cantrill and Mia Zamora (Education Science, March 2016
• The Fallacies of Open: Participatory Design, Infrastructuring, and the Pursuit of Radical Possibility by Stephanie West-Puckett, University of Rhode Island; Anna Smith, Illinois State University; Christina Cantrill, National Writing Project; & Mia Zamora, Kean University (CITE Journal, 2018)