This week we shared elements of our dreams and what these dreams say about us. We thought about dreams, or even nightmares and tried to make sense of them. We used digital texts and tools to try and capture these evanescent occurrences.

You want me to talk about dreams?

Dreams fundamentally have an inherent, sometimes ethereal, fuzzy nature to them. Dreams are a little bit between here and there. Dreams are also one of those things that most people have, or say they don’t have. It’s acceptable to work, and talk, and try to recreate our dreams. In this learning event we had you all think about your dreams and what they say about you. A little bit about who we are, or who we would like to be.

For some of us, dreams have this fuzzy, or ambiguous nature to them. They also may seem a bit kiddish to us. I had that feeling this week in class when I was announcing the learning event for this week and I saw the reaction on some of the faces of the room when I announced that we’d be talking about and sharing dreams. My thinking is that it might hit a little too close to the core for some of us. Talking and asking about dreams cuts to the inner bits of us that we tuck away from the real world. Sometimes…it’s okay to open up. It’s okay to break away.

This week in dreams

That being said, we have had a lot of cool pieces shared up to this point. It was really cool seeing some of the introspective pieces that people shared this week. Many of us opened up and shared what makes us who we are, and what keeps us up at night. Monica Hayes shared this great piece about work, and stress, and insomnia. Cari McKee shared this awesome post that digs a little bit deeper into who she is and what got her to this point.

We also had people share the seemingly disparate parts that make up their dreams. Jeanine Clark Bremer shared these two tweets to capture this dichotomy.

My daydreams….those are different. #walkmyworld #niu714 pic.twitter.com/UTB3fZAeOJ

— Jeanine Clark Bremer (@ClarkBremer) February 24, 2015

My most vivid dreams revolve around stress and typically recur. #walkmyworld #niu714 pic.twitter.com/F3QaLrvYbh

— Jeanine Clark Bremer (@ClarkBremer) February 24, 2015

This week in a MOOC near you

We need to make the point that the #WalkMyWorld project, in many ways is an alternative form of a MOOC. A MOOC is a Massive Open Online Class. I believe this project is more of a  mentored environment, and more of a community than a class…but let’s not mince words. What is important is that this is an open, alternative learning environment. Many of you are completing these activities as part of a class, but it’s still open, online, and collaborative. As such, there are several aspects that set a MOOC, or work like this apart.

If you want to read more about this, I can suggest two chapters I recently worked on. If you can’t sleep and need to dream…I think they’ll do the trick. 🙂

The important things for this discussion are as follows. One, you get out of this project what you put into it. If you engage and connect with others, you’ll find some lifelong friends, and add to your personal learning network (PLN). Two, MOOCs are open, and participatory. This means that you can come and go as you please. There are no due dates. We organize our project into learning events. If you get behind on stuff…go ahead and get caught up…if you choose to. If you start later than others, or start in a year…that’s even acceptable. Third, the last point I’d like to highlight is that there are multiple ways to interact and connect in an open learning experience. MOOCs such as this have organizers and mentors…the lines sometimes blur. They also have participants that come and go punching the clock. Finally, there are also lurkers out there. I think the concept of the lurker is a fascinating one. We know from educational psychology that humans don’t learn passively, but there is something to be gained by lurking, and observing what is happening in an ecosystem. It works for biologists. 🙂

Keep up the good work all. It’s been fun learning and connecting with everyone.

Cover image CC BY-NC 2.0 Village Square

Top image CC BY-NC 2.0 Thomas Hawk

Bottom image CC BY-NC 2.0 Thomas Hawk