As you know from our readings/viewings this week, connectivism is a learning theory advocated by George Siemens (and others) that emphasizes the importance and role of networks and connections; and learning, therefore, involves the ability to construct and navigate those connections and networks, and apply the results of forming networks and making connections to enhancing understanding, addressing problems of practice, and pursuing unrealized opportunities. So for a quick recap, recall that the principles of connectivism are:
- Learning is a network phenomenon, influenced and assisted by socialization and technology.
- Connectivism externalizes knowledge, with knowledge residing in a distributed manner across a network.
- Learning is a process of connecting information sources, and nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.
- Capacity to know more is more important than what is currently known. (Or, as George Siemens articulates so well: “The pipe is more important than the content within the pipe. Our ability to learn what we need for tomorrow is more important than what we know today.”)
- The ability to see connections and patterns between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.
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The networked act of learning exists on two levels:
- Internally as neural networks, and
- Externally as the networks we actively form.
- We externalize ourselves in order to know and be known. As we externalize, we distribute our knowledge across a network.
As a new blog post or page here on our WordPress site, please share your views on one of the following four questions related to the readings from the first few weeks of the course. I’m asking you to select one of the following prompts to expound on, contributing to our shared understanding of connectivism and how it applies to our work in this course and beyond:
Prompt A. Connectivism has a core proposition — knowledge is not acquired. What does that mean? If knowledge is not acquired, then what instead?
Prompt B. What is your response to the following quote from George Siemens? “Technology is altering (rewiring) our brains. The tools we use define and shape our thinking.” In what ways do you agree with this quote, and in what ways do you not agree with it? How does social media and social networking play into this?
Prompt C. What do you want to share about connectivism? Create your own prompt.
Note: We will be taking what we contribute here regarding connectivism and accomplish two additional tasks: (a) I will be inviting you to turn this conversation into a blog post for your base camp, and (b) I will be inviting you to use your new understanding of connectivism to correct and enhance the Connectivism page in Wikiversity.