Did someone just say MOO-Cs??

It's September and back to school time!  I always loved those first days of school--carefully picking out my supplies, just the right three-ring binder, carefully choosing the colors of my spiral notebooks (no black ones please!), and anticipating what I was going to learn that year.  In retrospect, I was that geeky girl who loved school, but I have no regrets about it.  I couldn't wait for classes to start and find out what books we'd be reading in English. There are days I longingly wish someone would pay me to be a student, and I'd still be sitting in a classroom somewhere!

Since I work for a major university, tonight I'm helping with a welcome party for new students.  It's their first week of college classes and I am sure many of them are as excited as I once was, although probably also a little overwhelmed and nervous.  But this year I'm not quite as envious of their opportunities to sit in a classroom and tackle new ideas, because the concept of MOOCs has taken the academic world by storm, and I've jumped on this fast moving train to see where it takes me.

 

Coined in 2008, MOOC refers to Massive Open Online Courses and is a way to learn online, sitting at your own computer.  You can simply do the work for your own personal enrichment or earn a certificate in the class by participating in the class homework.  The New York Times dubbed 2012 'The Year of the MOOC,' and it has since become one of the hottest topics in education. Time magazine said that free MOOCs open the door to the 'Ivy League for the Masses.'  In the fall of 2011 Stanford University launched three courses, each of which had an enrollment of about 100,000.  This was followed in May 2013 by the announcement of the first-ever entirely MOOC-based Master's Degree, a collaboration between Udacity, AT&T and the Georgia Institute of Technology, costing $7,000--a far cry from the typical MBA price tag of over $40,000.

I start a course in Modern and Contemporary American Poetry next week, offered by the University of Pennsylvania. One of my sons is taking a course from Vanderbilt University in Online Games:  Literature, New Media and Narrative.  Another son is taking Wesleyan University's class The Language of Hollywood:  Storytelling, Sound and Color.  A friend of mine has signed up for a Princeton course in the History of the World since 1300.  And a work colleague of mine has mapped out how to work on her MBA while still working full time. All for free.  Knowledge, shared by some of the nation's leading professors and universities, just waiting for us to sign up and dig in. 

While I tend to be a bit of a romantic, yearning for the "simpler days" this is one example of a brave new world that I find exciting and I'm ready to embrace it, arms open wide.  Learning shouldn't stop as we grow older, and there are so many exciting courses now available to everyone, regardless of your work or financial status.  I'm betting one of my favorite fictional school teachers, Anne Shirley (of Avonlea) would approve.

Since one of the poets I'll be studying next week is Walt Whitman, I'll leave you with one of his poems, Come, Said my Soul.  Until tomorrow, I wish you a beautiful and love filled day.  

Come, said my soul,
Such verses for my body let us write, (For we are One),
That should I after death invisibly return,
Or, long, long hence, in other spheres,
There to some group of mates the chants resuming,
(Tallying Earth's soil, trees, winds, tumultous waves,)
Ever with pleas'd smile I may keep on
Ever and ever to the verses owning - as, first, I here and now,
Signing for soul and body, set them to my name.

Come, said my Soul Such verses for my Body let us write, (for we are one,) That should I after death invisibly return, Or, long, long hence, in other spheres, There to some group of mates the chants resuming, (Tallying Earth's soil, trees, winds, tumultuous waves,) Ever with pleas'd smiles I may keep on, Ever and ever yet the verses owning – as, first, I here and now, Singing for Soul and Body, set to them my name, - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20970#sthash.v4LJ5DBT.dpuf

Come, said my Soul

  by Walt Whitman

Come, said my Soul
Such verses for my Body let us write, (for we are one,)
That should I after death invisibly return,
Or, long, long hence, in other spheres,
There to some group of mates the chants resuming,
(Tallying Earth's soil, trees, winds, tumultuous waves,)
Ever with pleas'd smiles I may keep on,
Ever and ever yet the verses owning – as, first, I here and now,
Singing for Soul and Body, set to them my name,
Walt Whitman

- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20970#sthash.v4LJ5DBT.dpuf