Harvard EdX: Leaders of learning

I recently completed the Harvard EdX course «Leaders of learning», a MOOC where the students are to explore and understand their own theories of learning and leadership, and gain the tools to imagine and build the future of learning: «All of us carry explicit or implicit theories of learning. They manifest themselves in the ways we learn, the ways we teach, and the ways we think about leadership and learning.»

Since I have been doing some teaching as a course instructor for the Norwegian Society of Records Managers and Archivists in their courses about the Norwegian freedom of information act, I thought this Harvard EdX course might help me broaden my view of teaching, and give me a foundation that I can build on later.

Leaders of learning did not provide a lot of (if any) theory on pedagogy, which I somewhat missed, but it did help clarify my own theories: which modes of teaching and learning that I am most comfortable with (and as my clear preference is «the distributed individual» (one of the four teaching and learning «quadrants»), MOOCs are right up my alley).

Subsequently, Leaders of learning opened my eyes to the fact that different people learn in different ways – what works for me might not work as well for someone else. Of course, this is (or at least should be) obvious, but I had never really reflected on it before. And to that effect alone, Leaders of learning was well worth the effort!