Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Free first, pay later ...

Some may have heard of Paulo Coehlo, and may even read his book The Alchemist.  His current book, Aleph has been released by him on the internet, gratis, in several markets outside of the US. In an article in yesterday's New York Times, "Mr. Coelho continues to give his work away free by linking to Web sites that have posted his books, asking only that if readers like the book, they buy a copy, “so we can tell to the industry that sharing contents is not life threatening to the book business,” as he wrote in one post."

This is an interesting concept from many perspectives, and my thoughts drifted to the MOOC ... as online and free for learning.  What would you pay for a MOOC if you were looking to earn college credits ... after having completed your learning journey within the context of the course.  How would you explain your learning/knowledge gained throughout the time spent in a personal, networked, learning environment?  What price do you place on the value of learning. 
 
Many educators have discussed the concept of PLA ... Prior Learning Assessment ... as a means for earning college credit for College level learning through work, certification programs, self learning and such.  The assessment challenges for evaluating that learning are what seem to be the topic for concern at this time. How would you evaluate your learning?  The learning that others obtain?


What are your thoughts?





I am looking forward to reading, hearing or seeing your response to these questions.  Thank you.



1 comment:

  1. Hi Carol,

    I saw that and find it interesting. It makes you think why people have started sharing more. Is a culture shift happening?

    Regarding accrediting prior learning in a MOOC or any other open access context this is fascinating and I think it is becoming more relevant already. What will this mean for institutions and their 'services'?

    Have you seen http://wikiquals.wordpress.com/ by Fred Garnett?

    Speak again soon.
    Chrissi

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