Connectivism: theory or phenomenon

Modelling 21st Century Learning

Frances Bell, Salford Business Schoolfrancesbell on Twitter

http://www.francesbell.wordpress.comSlideshow is at http://www.slideshare.net/francesbell

What is coming up

• Changing socio-technical context• Impact on practice – for teachers and

learners• What is Connectivism?• Connectivist Teachers• Connectivist Learners• Innovation, dialogue and modelling• Some ways to get engaged

Changing socio-technical context

‘Internet of things’ – emerging technologies ‘talking’ to each other-Implications for student practice as scholars and researchers-http://youtu.be/sfEbMV295Kk#t=0m41s

Changing socio-technical context – impact on practice

• How can we make sense of our and students’ use of the Internet and emerging technologies in learning?

Our hopes and fears in a brave new world?

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4066/4284879663_62e5738635_m.jpg

Returning to our question

• How can we make sense of our and students’ use of the Internet and emerging technologies in learning?– (and to leverage our new skills)

– We can model effective technology-enabled learning

– We can learn from our students by engaging in true dialogue about our uses of these technologies

What is Connectivism?

http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm

George Siemens Stephen Downes

Connectivist Teachers

• Fourth iteration of CCK course running CCK11– Connectivism and Connective Knowledge – a Massive

Open Online Course (MOOC) ran for 12 weeks from September 2008 http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&q=Connectivism+CCK08&meta=&fp=4f5d09baf13b1669

– 2200 people enrolled

• What happened?– Learning about theory of connectivism– Experiencing networked learning within diverse

group/network– OR– Creating/ extending their own personal learning network

My take on this

• Connectivism had impact– Not as theory– But through the phenomenon of

networked enthusiastic practitioners trying to explore and make use of concepts in their day to day practice

– http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/902/1664

– http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fss/organisations/netlc/past/nlc2010/abstracts/Creanor.html

The Networked student

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwM4ieFOotA

Innovation, dialogue and modelling

TeacherLearning

InnovatingModelling

TeacherLearning

InnovatingModelling

StudentReflectingLearning

Innovating

StudentReflectingLearning

Innovating

Dialogue andlearning

A constructive conversation

Example – documenting a project in Web 2.0 http://www.flickr.com/photos/francesbell/sets/72157616064980620/show/

Some ways to get engaged

• Check out Stephen Downes OL Daily http://www.downes.ca/news/OLDaily.htm , subscribe at http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/login.cgi?action=Register

• Follow some interesting people from your discipline on Twitter or their blogs

• Build your own valued network

Any points for discussion?

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4128/5067294524_134fce8ff2_t.jpg

(for reference) Principles of connectivism:

• Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions. • Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources. • Learning may reside in non-human appliances. • Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known • Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning. • Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill. • Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist

learning activities. • Decision-making is itself a learning process. Choosing what to learn and the

meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision.

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• the sharing of cognitive tasks between people and technology• coping with rapid change in the ‘information ecology’• consideration of the impact of theories of networks, complexity and chaos

Credits

• http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm (Siemens)

• Stephen Downes wealth of resources at http://downes.ca/