As a middle school teacher, when I reflect on Connectivism and education I agree with much of what George Siemens has to say. In his TedxNYED talk on March 3rd, 2010, Siemens said that the purpose of education is to prepare individuals to be contributing and interactive parts of society. Having only completed my undergraduate degree in special education 4 short years ago, this fits with my personal philosophy of education. I believe that it is my job as a teacher to guide my students to the wealth of information available in a structured way so that they are able to access the information, draw their own conclusions, and that they spread those ideas to their peers. The hope is that they are interacting in a way that builds on their previous learning and causes them to create new thoughts and ideas.
Siemens describes teaching as “information interrogation systems overlayed with social connectivity.” Middle school students are by nature social beings. To fight this natural tendency will only lead to rebellion from the students and a loss of personal connection with them too resulting in a lack of learning. The goal is to guide their natural desire to connect with the gathering and sharing of intellectual information or garnering their interest enough in the content that they want to seek out more information and share it with their peers.
One of the challenges that I find in trying to actively teach with Connectivism in mind is the vast amounts of inaccurate information available to my students. Trying to teach my students how to discern between facts and false information can be very difficult. Also, the struggle of finding ways to present the information so that they are invested enough to dig deeper on their own and then excited enough about what they learn to want to share it.
Ultimately, I believe, like Siemens, that my job and goal is to help prepare my students to become positive contributing society members. Personally, I am still constantly learning and stretching myself, trying to better understand the new digital culture that my students live in so that I can better help them navigate towards true Connectivism. It is an ongoing process. As Siemens says, it is more about the vessel than the actual knowledge. So, I try to worry less about how little I currently know about today’s technology but strive to dig deeper to understand it all in a better way. Hopefully, my own journey in Connectivism will lead to success for my students.