Connectivism – as an educator, just the word by itself wants me to do more research and find out more. The name and what it means is what I find most compelling. How do you learn about new stuff? Where do you go to learn new stuff? What are my knowledge networks? I look at YouTube daily, and this discussion question requires a posting on YouTube. I have a FaceBook page because my children said, “Dad if you want to know what we are doing in our lives, you need FaceBook.” I have a blog I started for my learners, including school assignments, glossary, and fun learning. Blogs help me answer the questions of How do I… and What about…? I have a Twitter account as a knowledge network to share and learn. Who do my learners connect with online? I use Snapchat because it is fun, quick, and free. How do my learners share their learning? Do they have blogs? Who or where do they learn from? Where do I find experts in education and learning? It is essential to know so people can get connected and gain perspective around the world.

So, what is connectivism? Connectivism is a prominent network learning theory developed for e-learning environments. In 2004, Stephen Downes and George Siemens argued that changing technology is prevalent in education, and the current learning theories (behaviourism, cognitivism, constructivism, and constructionism) were limiting. This required a new learning theory for the digital age.

Connectivism is the first theoretical attempt to examine the implications for learning the Internet and the explosion of new communications technologies (Bates, 2019). This idea that knowledge exists everywhere and is increasing at an extraordinary rate, and technology is an integral part of learning. The important and unimportant information accessed and organized by the learner is a skill worth developing.

Learning, on the other hand, is the process of creating connections and developing a personal network. But it is essential to consider the value of the information and determine if it is useful or not.

Technology in education makes social efficacy, and technical proficiency, critical goals and the Internet are optimal learning environments. In asynchronous learning, learners can access the online material at any time. In synchronous learning, there is real-time interaction between learners and educators. The positive information is readily available; the negative is that the retention of information is no longer important. The positive is building a network of new connections. The negative is those connections lose their value over time. The positive is that learners are the main focus of the learning process. The negative is that there is a lot of ambiguous information available.

Special populations of learners have the same and more challenges as they experience enacting connectivism. Frequently called the “information highway” and the “global village” (Wilson and Lowry, 2000), the Internet, through Web 2.0, provides resources for inquiry, information gathering options, data rating and affinity sites, communication, and mobility. Many special populations of learners do not have that ubiquitous access to knowledge enabled by the current technological environment, such as the Internet. Add to that, learning environments are often established online where authenticity can be simulated or questioned. Special populations of learners are required to navigate through the challenges with limited guidance.

According to Siemens (2005), knowledge is created beyond individual human participants’ level and is continually shifting and changing. The Internet changes the essential nature of knowledge, and learning can tap into that information.

Laurie

References

Bates, T. (2019). Teaching in a digital age: Guidelines for designing teaching and learning (2^nd ed.). Tony Bates Associates Ltd.

Connectivism.  (2020, December 7). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connectivism

Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism: A theory for the digital age. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance learning, 2(1), figure 2.6.3 https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Connectivism%3A-A-Learning-Theory-for-the-Digital-Age-Siemens/f87c61b964e32786e06c969fd24f5a7d9426f3b4