A word for 2015 challenge: MOOCs

I read about this challenge on Vicky Loras' blog and it seems to me as the best way to start the year and this blog in general. (2012 has been called 'The year of the MOOC' by the New York Times-3 years later I'd like to believe that every year from now on will be the year of the MOOC for me)

It's already been a year since I started enrolling in MOOCs. What a year! I consider myself a fervent lifelong learning advocate and when I learned about the existence of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) the word became immediately synonym to "Open Sesame"for me . It opened the door to a whole new world of learning that I knew nothing of. My first course about online and blended learning also came as a surprise to me! I had no idea people learned this way. (Please , don't get me wrong!I love my job and I used to get informed about everything new but during the past ten years I have been a full time mummy to 3 children and I had to slow down with my job for a while-everybody knows the frenzy a teacher lives if she wishes to be a good teacher!) But of course I was about to find out more about it all by experimenting what it is to be part of an online learning community upon joining this first course. The whole experience was thrilling! I couldn't wait every Monday for the new week readings, videos and assignments. My instructor's help was immediate and conducive to my intent to do better and better. The communication with colleagues from around the world and from my own country of course was eye-opening! I successfully completed the course and I soon enrolled in a new one and another one and then another one...Needless to say, I attended some very interesting things! There were some courses I enrolled and never had the time to complete but I was determined to complete those I found exciting enough! It was like an addiction to me. When a course ended I immediately started a new one. Sometimes I attended 2 or even 3 at the same time. At the moment I am attending 3. To cut a long story short: I am Maria and I love MOOCs! They have become a part of my life for a year now and I plan to keep it this way for 2015 and the years to come- I hope!

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