Course Design Orientation

Two of the most important hats that I wear is as a lecturer at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, and the executive director of the Society for Free Culture and Software where I organise a Nordic network of Creative Commons. At the University, I'm a lecturer in Software Engineering.

We have quite a history of community learning in Sweden, and I dare say that pretty much everyone has been involved in community learning in one way or another during their adult life. What I appreciate with peer-to-peer learning is that it brings this entire ecosystem into a modern context and enables people that would otherwise not be able to participate in this kind of learning to do so.

This also matches very well what we do at a university level with problem based learning, where the power over the learning, the processes around it and what exactly you learn, is in the hands of the students, not the teacher, and where the teacher has a facilitating role, not an expert role.

Here at the P2PU I will run a course in how to find funding for Creative Commons projects. What I hope to learn from this is not so much about technology or peer to peer itself, but I do hope to learn quite significantly from the persons taking the course. To learn more about writing successful project applications. Because while I do have some insight into this, I believe that I will also learn significantly from the process of encouraging others to do this.

I forgot to mention that I'm living in Colombia.

I'm a jazz musician and business writer living in New York City. I spend my days writing for and leading my own quartet as well as writing copy for an educational software company. I taught the drums for many years and am passionate about the importance of the arts as a fundamental component of being human... music being my focus, of course.

The P2PU model fascinates my because it's yet another way that technology is massively and quickly changing not just the way education is delivered, but our very idea of what education is.

My course/study group is called Do You Speak Music. It's about learning how to hear music the way a musician does without actually having to be one. It approaches it like a language, with 5 basic "parts of speech" that anyone can learn. So the first goal is that obviously everyone in the study group comes to understand the 5 elements. But I'm also looking to learn from the other members about their reaction to the 5 parts and tighten up or expand the concepts accordingly. Finally, I'm hoping that some members will feel inspired enough and equipped enough to lead their own study group on Do You Speak Music.

Thanks to P2PU for creating such a wonderful resource that enables these things to happen.

Hi everyone,
I'm a PhD student at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University Toronto, along with Stian Haklev (who's introduction is somewhere in this thread as well). We're going to be working together to create an Intro to Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) course, in the absence of one here at OISE. I'm looking forward to not only creating a functional and growing resource of great work around CSCL, but also playing around with some of the new and innovative features P2PU offers (like badges, for example!)
I currently do work in elementary schools in Toronto that are using collaborative learning technologies for science and history, but I'm particularly excited to get my feet wet in terms of engaging a completely online model for learning :)

Greetings All-
I was enrolled as a student in the most recent cycle, Jan-Mar 2011, in 5 courses. While I'll continue to engage as a student, participating as a facilitator is also part of the learning process. Therein my interest in this orientation.

I've spent many years in the investment field, and several most recently in the information technology field. Currently I'm blending the two experiences through the development of computer applications for the global financial markets.

The old education model (the one i spent many years in) is fraying, and from one who studies bubbles, I believe the 'bricks-n-mortar' university model is the next bubble to burst. Not the institution necessarily, but certainly the costs of higher education will come under pressure.

I look forward to interacting with everyone at P2PU.

i am oki onome. i am from nigeria. i am fascinated with the p2p study method that i can help but to be a part of. i have a strong engineering background with strong taste for technology and social issues. i believe i will learn and achieve that much by being a member of this team.

Hi from http://p2pu.org/users/selfstudier and http://new.p2pu.org/en-US/selfstudier/ (although there isn't much on the latter yet).

I've done one course and now I'm running the same one http://p2pu.org/webcraft/javascript-101-1 together with the guy who ran it last time.

Interested in running a course along the lines of "Python & 3D Graphics" and possibly one on "Geometric Algebra".

Shared is better, all sorts of stuff you can pick up that's not in the books, more fun too.

I'd just like to be able to organize (participate) in courses (study groups) well and perhaps make a few friends along the way.

Hi everyone, I'm Amy. I'm a medical librarian working in a small non-profit hospital in a larger system. One of the things that drew me to medical libraries was their focus on using technology to provide the best possible service and because of the focus on education, be it for patients, their families, or for the medical staff who take care of them.

A friend from college introduced me to P2PU because she knew of my interests in technology and education. I love the idea of learning from peers and the creation of an environment that supports learning at any stage of life, in an open way (librarians are generally pretty into the idea of open information).

I've kind of progressed through the P2PU roles, starting as a participant, then as a peer facilitator (a large group that was divided into subsections, so I was learning and organizing at the same time, while using an expert's syllabus and support). Now I'm leading my own class on finding and evaluating health information on the internet, using open sources! I'll also have the honor of sharing the P2PU model with other medical librarians at our large national organization's annual meeting.

Nice to meet you all, and good luck!

Hi all,
My name is Wesley M. Pennock currently I am research quantum computing independently. I am a high school junior and have been reading books about college level physics topics since I was 10. I love to learn and how to gain alot by being apart of P2PU. Currently I am enrolled in Python 101 and would like to teach a computer security course some time in the future. I love science in general but my favorites are physics and computer science.

Hi Everyone,

I am a Professor of Civil Engineering and have been teaching for over 25 years. I am based in Hubli, Karnataka in the south of India.

I plan to conduct the course :Getting Started with Scilab" (http://www.p2pu.org/math-future/getting-started-scilab). Engineers rely heavily on numerical computations and many problems they solve require use of matrices. The traditional way is to use a programming language such as Fortran C/C++, but they take the focus away from the problem and shift it to programming languages. A Free Software such as Scilab shifts the focus back on the problem since all matrix and numerical operations on them are built-in into Scilab.

I look forward to experiment with P2PU as a platform for delivering knowledge across geographical boundaries and time zones and its suitability in delivering high value content in a niche segment. It would be interesting to see how one can sustain the commitment of participants and see whether pedagogical tools that work in a instructor lead trainings or classrooms work with eLearning.