Aboriginal Worldviews and Education

This week this MOOC comes to its end. I think I will not have time to do the last Quiz, because I took part at two MOOCs at the same time, and the second (Know Thyself) is more interesting for me now, and I would like to finish it with getting a certificate.

The biggest problem with both EDC MOOC and Aboriginal Worldviews was for me, that they were too short. Four weeks aren’t enough for me to study something. Just when I start to feel connected with course’s topics and materials it comes to it’s end. And I think also, that both courses was overloaded with information, as for me. I would prefer to have same amount of information in 5 or 6 weeks. It is not about lack of time to watch all lectures and videos. It is about lack of time to discuss all what I want to discuss, to think about all this materials we get. Actually, I don’t want to sit at Coursera forums through all day. So I would like to have less materials for each week do discuss them deeper.

Studying Aboriginal Worldviews and Education was very productive for me, and I got some interesting ideas. Maybe I will write some of Activities this week, even they wouldn’t be counted for my grade already.

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Aboriginal Worldviews and Education

This week this MOOC comes to its end. I think I will not have time to do the last Quiz, because I took part at two MOOCs at the same time, and the second (Know Thyself) is more interesting for me now, and I would like to finish it with getting a certificate.

The biggest problem with both EDC MOOC and Aboriginal Worldviews was for me, that they were too short. Four weeks aren’t enough for me to study something. Just when I start to feel connected with course’s topics and materials it comes to it’s end. And I think also, that both courses was overloaded with information, as for me. I would prefer to have same amount of information in 5 or 6 weeks. It is not about lack of time to watch all lectures and videos. It is about lack of time to discuss all what I want to discuss, to think about all this materials we get. Actually, I don’t want to sit at Coursera forums through all day. So I would like to have less materials for each week do discuss them deeper.

Studying Aboriginal Worldviews and Education was very productive for me, and I got some interesting ideas. Maybe I will write some of Activities this week, even they wouldn’t be counted for my grade already.

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Aboriginal Worldviews and Education: 1st Assignment

The objective of the 1st assignment was “Write a short (maximum 250 words) ethnographic description of your chosen place. Using the ethnographic voice, describe your familiar place as though you are seeing it as an outsider for the first time. Your description should insightfully illuminate the cultural worldview operating implicitly in your familiar place”.

I chose library, because this is a place I visit most often. Here is a longer version of my text written for this assignment:

The library

The library is a place where people can get books for free for certain time, usually for an month. To use this opportunity people need to register at the library first and get an library ticket.

The library is a very quiet place, or at least people try to make it quiet. Often a voice of a librarian can be heard: “Please switch your mobile phone off!” or “Please speak with friends somewhere else”. The library can be divided in two zones – “silent” and “not silent”. To “silent” zone belong reading halls and catalogues, where people can get a rebuke even for whispering something to a friend who sits near. “Not silent” zone are lobbies, corridors between “silent” places, checkrooms. So when one gets for example a phone call, he or she needs to first leave “silent” zone and only then answer.

The behavior of visitors can be different. Some people walk slowly from one bookshelf to another looking at the books and searching something interesting. Other tend to visit some specific groups of bookshelves, for example, with new books, with magazines of current year or with light reading books. Some people know what they want, so they just order a desired book, get it and go away.

Although some people visit a library alone, many groups of people, especially students, can be seen there. They come together to discuss something related to reading and study process, but also some other things. Sometimes (and not rare) “we will go to a library” sounds like “we will go to a cinema”, because both means to do something together, in a group, and to combine some useful and purposeful activity (reading, watching movie) with chatting and socializing. Such group visits to a library are typical mostly for students. Elder people usually come alone.

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AWE MOOC Week 1 Activity: Meaningful Place

One of the tasks of Week 1 at Aboriginal Worldview and Education MOOC is to describe own meaningful place. Here is what I wrote.

I cannot say that there is a place now, that I visit regularly and feel connected to. I have irrational feelings related to certain districts of areas of my hometown, and I also spend much time in libraries and like them very much. But the story of meaningful place is something different.

As I was child I visited my great grandmother every summer. She lived in another country (I live in Russia, and she was in Lithuania) in a small resort city. I can say that the city in whole, the image of a city in my memory is a meaningful place for me. I felt it again few months ago, when I was browsing Google Maps and found this city. I haven’t been there already for many years since my great grandmother has gone to a better world, but I still remember, where which tree was, and where I liked to walk, etc.

And I can also mention certain places in this city, that are even more meaningful for me. Sometimes (and not rare) I see this city in my dreams, and there are some key places, that appear more often. The playground. The tree near the house that was the common place for my games with friends and was everything from house to spaceship. A foot-path through the forest. An old log not far from the path that has the form of a wolf and was also my favorite place. A silent lake. A small river with an cascade. Our dacha and all this suburb area, that we visited nearly every day. I see now, that this list can be longer – there are so many things to mention. So I will stop and say, that the city of summers of my childhood is my meaningful place. Many very important stories of my life started there. I have a dream to visit this city maybe when I will be 30 years old… but I also have the fear that this can destroy the image of this city I have now in my memory.

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Aboriginal Worldviews and Education

Aboriginal Worldviews and Education course starts today at Coursera. It will be not very long (4 Weeks), so it’s just an introduction, but I hope it will be very productive for me. I note that the focus of my attention moves from studying different disciplines to the process of education itself. Aboriginal worldviews are also very interesting for me. Earlier I studied something to this topics during “Listening to World Music” Coursera course. I’ve also studied basic course of Folkloristic in the University. My current area of study isn’t directly connected to this discipline, but it still remains interesting and important for me.

It’s nice that submission period of the first assignment starts at the same day, when submission period of the final work for EDCMOOC ends

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