MOOC to you, too

Welcome to this week's Reno News & Review.

I'm doing something right now that I've never done before, and I'm doing it twice: I'm taking free online classes that instructors are using to augment classes that I'm paying for. The first is from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It's an app design class for Android phones based on Google's now defunct Google App Inventor. It's called MIT App Inventor 2, http://ai2.appinventor.mit.edu, and while TMCC's structure for getting into the MIT class was a little frustrating at first, MIT's interface is really easy and intuitive.

App Inventor 2 is an open source, Web-based system that allows people to create Android apps without having to know how to code. Instead of writing code, you just kind of drag around jigsaw puzzle pieces to make your phone do things. I use my laptop to do the design and then send the app to my phone. So far, all I've been able to do is make my kitty purr and scribble on photos I've taken of my friends, but I'm starting to get the idea.

The other class I'm taking is called Social Media for Journalists, sponsored by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at The University of Texas at Austin (UT). It's a MOOC, which means Massive Open Online Course, which means everyone's welcome to this party. Signup is here— https://knightcenter.utexas.edu—although they're only accepting people for a few more days. Still, for people who like to stretch their brains, and don't need to pay for the pleasure, there's a whole world of MOOCs at some really prestigious universities: www.mooc-list.com.

Of course, if you want the certificate of completion, and who wouldn't, you get to pay for the paper. Reminds me of certain brick and mortar institutions of higher learning.

At any rate, while I'm not very far into either of these classes, I've become very aware that the world has significantly advanced since I did my first online tutorial back in the early Oughts.