Connectivism Learning Today. The network is the learning.

Connectivism

Learning Today

The network is the learning

What’s Happening (the “why” of connectivism)?

• Rapid knowledge growth (duh? Really?)• Changing tools and needs=changing learners• Informal learning eclipsing formal learning• “know-how” and “know-what” replaced by “know-where”• Two-way flow - creator and consumer of content can interact • Questioning bias • End-user in control - Voices given to individuals • Decentralized - power pushed to the edges • Modularization • Pliable connections (or connected specialization) • History given to knowledge/learning that used to vaporize

What’s wrong with existing theories of learning?

• Processing/constructing is loaded onto the learner…an unsustainable model in rapid knowledge growth

Connectivism

Theory of organizing, learning, communicating and functioning in a digital, knowledge economy

Principle 1: Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of

opinions

• Effective learning occurs in an ecology of diverse opinions and views

• “I know” is moving to “we know as a team”

• Connected specialization

Principle 2: Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or

information sources. • Complexity of functioning in today’s

environment requires forming connections among specialized nodes

• The aggregation of differing knowledge fields and perspectives is the corner-stone of learning

Principle 3: Learning may reside in non-human appliances.

• Data• Information – data with intelligence applied• Knowledge – comprehension of

information• Meaning – implications of knowledge• Learning happens between knowledge

and meaning• These elements can reside in databases,

iPods, or be integrated into tools

Principle 4: Capacity to know more is more critical than what is

currently known

• Knowledge is the oil of the information/knowledge economy. Those who understand how it flows are the keepers of the new pipeline

Principle 5: Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed

to facilitate continual learning.

• Connections ensure continued access to changing dynamics – corporate, global, societal

Principle 6: Ability to see connections and patterns between

fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.

• Pattern recognition replaces mental processing functions in complex environments

Principle 7: Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the most critical function in a knowledge

economy • Rapidly changes result in existing

elements becoming outdated

• Outdated/disconnected decision making is a key challenge for organizations

Principle 8: 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.

LearningEcology

• Shift from designing learning to designing ecologies in which learning will occur

Types of tools?

• Functionality of ideal tools evidenced by:– Blogs, wikis, podcasts, vlogs, del.icio.us,

collaborative tools, groupware tools, VoIP, Furl, bloglines etc.

• Any tool which enables people to connect with each other or with content.

It’s all come undone: Centering Agents

• Newscast

• Newspaper

• Any single source of information which aggregates multiple sources

• Evisceration of centering agents

Challenge for knowledge workers today

• Rapid knowledge requires greater efforts on the part of the centering agents (i.e. everyone has a voice (podcast, blog, wiki)

• The elimination of centering agents generates stress – It’s too much!!!

• KM, elearning, epss, content management, knowledge discovery, network creation, CoPs, PKM – it’s all the same mess – Let’s strategically Connect

General assumptions

• Information pace too rapid for current model of learning

• Organizations need to rethink learning • Model selected must be dynamic (self-updating)

and fluid (not artificial construct of courses)• Different learning format requires different

responses• Pressures from other fields – music, video,

news – are being felt in education

Learning as Network Creation

• Nodes – people, data, programs, communities – anything which can be linked

• Connections – some meaningful form of interacting, RSS, Aggregators, epss

• Chaos is ok

What does this mean to corporate education?

• Learning conceptualized as continual process, not isolated, artificial constructs

• Currency in decision making• Education not used to support strategy –

learning used to inform strategy (and as a by-product of strategy implementation)

• Can we achieve strategy when we give up control? SOSS (shaped by structured ecology)

• Foster connections – relationships, dialogue

What does this mean to higher education?

• Centering agents – of information for your learners

• Non-courses (beyond basic level – i.e. bachelors)

• Accretion learning• Life-long – social, self-forming, dynamic (tether

learner to organization)• Subscription revenue• Form connections – people, content, ideas• Diversity of tools and concepts

Questions?

George Siemens

www.elearnspace.org

www.connectivism.ca

Email: [email protected]