In this paper, we look at how the massive open online course (MOOC) format developed by connectivist researchers and enthusiasts can help analyze the complexity, emergence, and chaos at work in the field of education today. We do this through the prism of a MobiMOOC, a six-week course focusing on mLearning that ran from April to May 2011. MobiMOOC embraced the core MOOC components of self-organization, connectedness, openness, complexity, and the resulting chaos, and, as such, serves as an interesting paradigm for new educational orders that are currently emerging in the field. We discuss the nature of participation in MobiMOOC, the use of mobile technology and social media, and how these factors contributed to a chaotic learning environment with emerging phenomena. These emerging phenomena resulted in a transformative educational paradigm.
Via Peter B. Sloep
This paper is about experiences with a cMOOC, seen through the lens of chaos theory, complexity theory and emergence. If you feel comfortable with these theories, this should be an interesting paper to you. I can't help being underwhelmed by their explanatory value, and this paper is no exception to that. I would like to see explanations of what happens starting at the level of the interacting units, people, that then explain the macroscopic patterns that we see; so, in terms of social network theory, game theory, and the like. (@pbsloep)