Transcript Connectivism - elearnspace

Connectivism
Learning conceptualized through
the lens of today’s world
George Siemens
Learning Technologies Centre
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Context
Context-free Tree
Learning Technologies Centre
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My argument
• Exponentially developing knowledge and
complexification of society requires nonlinear models of learning (process) and
knowing (state). We cannot sustain
ourselves as learning/knowing beings in the
current climate with our current
approaches.
• Networked (social, technological)
approaches scale in line with changes, but
require a redesign of how we teach, learn
(and see learning), and come to know.
Learning Technologies Centre
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Big changes change big
institutions
Learning Technologies Centre
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What are knowledge trends?
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Intuitive
Growth
Fluidity
Impact on authority
Impact on certainty
Technology
Learning Technologies Centre
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Fluid knowledge
Product to process
Creation, dissemination, distribution,
end-user relationship
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Architecture of participation powered by
network effects
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Knowledge
• Knowledge has changed (in quantity, if
not core nature)
• Our reaction on institutional level has
not
• We still see it primarily as a product
• Learning, knowing, cognition –
distributed (Hutchins)
Learning Technologies Centre
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Abundance creates problems
for existing approaches
• Inability to process – bounded
rationality
• Require new skills
• Require new educational models
Learning Technologies Centre
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If you have three pet dogs, give them
names. If you have 10,000 head of
cattle, don't bother.
David Gelernter
Learning Technologies Centre
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Where can we scale?
• Human capacity – yes, but bounded
• Technology capacity – augmentation primitive
• Procedural capacity - Network
intelligence
Learning Technologies Centre
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Hasn’t it always been this way?
• Think of it two-fold:
– Body – our understanding increases in what
is there (understanding ourselves)
– Technology – we create what isn’t
(extending ourselves)
Learning Technologies Centre
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Learning in relationship to
knowledge and mind
• Distributed –
– Hutchins – Not “in skull”
– Spivey et. al. – “not always inside brain”
– Bereiter – “knowing outside the mind”
• Externalization – Wittgenstein, Vygotsky
• Socialization – Papert, Piaget, Bruner, Bandura
• Ethical/moral obligations…structures –
Freire, Illich, Papert, Dewey
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What is a connection
Awareness with potential for relationship
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Connections of a certain type are
valuable:
• Relevance
• Of value for information sharing
• Dense connections reduce adaptability
(Beinhocker)
• “making connections that generate
insight” (Cross, Laseter)
Learning Technologies Centre
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“Roads no longer merely lead to places;
they are places”
John Brinckerhoff Jackson
Learning Technologies Centre
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The power of networks…of
doubling
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Upgrading our relationship to
information/knowledge
• From knowing about - to knowing
where/who - to
sensemaking/understanding
• Cognition – “grunt level work” handled by
technology
– Tag maps/clouds
– Social bookmarking trends
– We move to meaning making more rapidly
Learning Technologies Centre
www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies
Learning Technologies Centre
www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies
Connectivism
What is it?
A certain type of knowledge…
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Rapidly changing
Complex
Connected
Global
Social
Technologically mediated
Learning Technologies Centre
www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies
Learning Technologies Centre
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But what does this look like
practically?
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Learning is network formation
“Network Administrator”
Atelier Learning (JSB)
Open tools – first generation – we are
only now seeing “what is possible”
Learning Technologies Centre
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Future Combat Systems
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Connected specialization
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Undiscovered public knowledge
• When connections are weak…not more
research, but better connections
• Undiscovered public knowledge (Don
Swanson) – systems of information that
are similar but distinct or not normally
connected
Learning Technologies Centre
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Blog space as canary
• Blogs have dealt with information
abundance for years. How do we cope?
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Networks of trusted sources
Diversity
Openness
Aggregators
Learning Technologies Centre
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What skills do our learners need
today?
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Pattern recognition
Network formation and evaluation
Critical/creative thinking
Acceptance of uncertainty/ambiguity
Contextualizing
Learning Technologies Centre
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“To the neuroscientist, learning is a
whole-person/whole-brain activity what
confounds received organizations”
Theodore Marchese
Learning Technologies Centre
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Balance
• Formal and informal
• Think holistically:
– Network (the history of ideas is a network
of connections) – structures of openness
– Ecologies – spaces of diversity
• Context drives approach
Learning Technologies Centre
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The role of technology
• Technology expresses a view…it isn’t
neutral
• Augments, enhances, extends cognition
– Memory “knowing about” is external
Learning Technologies Centre
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The structure of the device becomes
the structure of the knowledge
James Bosco
• Book, courses
• Internet: network…connective pathways
Learning Technologies Centre
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“All the knowledge is in the connections”
David Rumelhart
Learning Technologies Centre
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Concerns
• Adaptivity – adjust ourselves as our
environment and technology adjusts
– What is the balance between reacting to
and influencing the space?
• Critical views…not utopia
Learning Technologies Centre
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Where is the connection formed?
• During repeated use?
• During reflection/rest?
• “The rest principle states that
connections within a pathway of neurons
become stronger only if the neurons rest
after firing and that the connections will
get weaker if the neurons are fired
repeatedly without rest.”
Learning Technologies Centre
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What are the implications of this
for our learning?
• Answer in Moodle forums…
Learning Technologies Centre
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Everything is an experiment
Everyone is a creator
Learning Technologies Centre
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