Notes on Spark 205: MOOCs, Crowdsourcing, Crisis Mapping

• The episode
• In the show, it is pointed out that the scarcity is the instructor's and TAs' one-on-one time, not the lecturing and the lecture notes.  Those that comb the web extensively for answers (notably programmers) intuitively understand this:  While the answer is probably out there somewhere, it can be tricky to formulate a query for your favorite search engine to find it.  Content farms are also making search engine querying more difficult.  Question and answer sites like Quora and Stack Overflow help as you can tailor your question to your situation but still they are not as dynamic as a face-to-face conversation you can have with an expert.  That is, while the PowerPoint is important, the more valuable thing is the post-presentation conversation you can have with the presenter while most everyone else is leaving the room
• The topic of MOOCs has also made me think about professional development opportunities I had from the workplace.  Many of these opportunities involved taking in-classroom courses in other cities.  While it allowed me to do a lot of traveling on company dime, the fact that they were in-classroom did not make them good courses by default.  The best courses or sessions were the ones in which I could apply what I learned immediately on the job.  For most of the courses in which I didn't have a problem at hand that could be solved by the course material, I quickly forgot what I learned or didn't even absorb it in the first place:  Salman Khan could have been teaching me and I would not have "got it"
• People taking MOOCs are usually self-motivated to learn but there are also techniques to "learning better".  I can go to local seminars and get a lot out of them because the intent to learn is there, I'm frequently making notes during the seminar, and I review and digitize my notes (if they weren't already digital before) so I have access to them anywhere
• I have not taken a full 40-hour online course or MOOC before, but am considering an online course over in-classroom courses if I can't find a local class.  Being at home with my toddler is important.  However, collaborating with fellow students is something I seldom did for in-classroom courses but something that I realize now is also immensely valuable, like instructor face-time.  How does that translate for online courses?
• Finally MOOC, online course, or in-classroom, all of that is premised on having the time to study.  There's a lot of great courses and tutorials out there but most importantly is having the time to study, considering work and family commitments.  Regarding work commitments, hearing about programs like Google 20 percent time makes me very envious ...