Learning Technologies Centre Connectivism Learning conceptualized through the lens of todays world George Siemens

Learning Technologies Centrewww.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies

Connectivism

Learning conceptualized through the lens of today’s

world

George Siemens


Context

Context-free Tree


My argument• Exponentially developing knowledge

and complexification of society requires non-linear 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.


Big changes change big institutions


What are knowledge trends?

• Intuitive• Growth • Fluidity • Impact on authority• Impact on certainty • Technology


Fluid knowledge

Product to process

Creation, dissemination, distribution, end-user relationship


Architecture of participation powered by network effects


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)


Abundance creates problems for existing

approaches• Inability to process – bounded

rationality• Require new skills• Require new educational models


If you have three pet dogs, give them names. If you have 10,000 head of cattle, don't bother.

David Gelernter


Where can we scale?

• Human capacity – yes, but bounded• Technology capacity – augmentation

- primitive• Procedural capacity - Network

intelligence


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 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


What is a connection

Awareness with potential for relationship


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)


“Roads no longer merely lead to places; they are places”

John Brinckerhoff Jackson


The power of networks…of doubling


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


ConnectivismWhat is it?


A certain type of knowledge…

• Rapidly changing• Complex• Connected • Global• Social• Technologically mediated



But what does this look like practically?

• Learning is network formation• “Network Administrator”• Atelier Learning (JSB)• Open tools – first generation – we are

only now seeing “what is possible”


Future Combat Systems


Connected specialization


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


Blog space as canary

• Blogs have dealt with information abundance for years. How do we cope?– Networks of trusted sources– Diversity– Openness– Aggregators


What skills do our learners need today?

• Pattern recognition• Network formation and evaluation• Critical/creative thinking• Acceptance of uncertainty/ambiguity• Contextualizing


“To the neuroscientist, learning is a whole-person/whole-brain activity what confounds received organizations”

Theodore Marchese


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


The role of technology

• Technology expresses a view…it isn’t neutral

• Augments, enhances, extends cognition– Memory “knowing about” is external


The structure of the device becomes the structure of the knowledge

James Bosco

• Book, courses• Internet: network…connective

pathways


“All the knowledge is in the connections”

David Rumelhart


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


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.”


What are the implications of this for

our learning?

• Answer in Moodle forums…


Everything is an experiment

Everyone is a creator


• www.elearnspace.org• www.connectivism.ca• www.knowingknowledge.com• http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/wordpress

http://www.elearnspace.org/

http://www.connectivism.ca/

http://www.knowingknowledge.com/

http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/wordpress

Get a Free Elluminate vRoom

Completely free, fully functional, cross platform, hosted web conferencing for up to 3 participants

Visit http://www.elluminate.com/vroom

Documents

Learning Technologies Centre Connectivism Learning conceptualized through the lens of todays world George Siemens