Thirty percent of MindMixer’s users are now using the platform for educational purposes.
When Bowden first began hearing about MOOCs, he said, they seemed like a perfect fit for the platform. This spring, Ohio State University’s Jennifer Evans-Cowley used MindMixer in her Coursera MOOC “TechniCity.”
“TechniCity” is a course that explores how networks, sensors and communication technology are dramatically changing cities across the world. Students work through the lectures and assignments on the Coursera site, but then also access the course’s MindMixer page through OSU’s website.
The page, an easily navigable and colorful list full of bright pink icons, functions much like a forum, but the topics are directly connected to activities and assignments within the MOOC. For example, one assignment required students to submit photographs of important technology used in their cities. They could then share those same images through MindMixer and generate a conversation, comparing and contrasting the different kinds of technology in Washington, D.C., or Shanghai, China.
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