Connectivism

These connections facilitate learning through communication. Learning is also facilitated through knowing how to both access and use these forms of communication. Knowledge is gained with the practice of using the different applications in multiple situations. For instance, I am able to learn what my children need for their studies and their games, through email, websites and phone conversations with their teachers and coaches. I am able to learn how to budget, and plan for fun activities for my family, through email, websites and phone conversations. I can learn about what is going on in my classes at Walden through email, the website, and phone conversations as well. Other media applications also facilitate learning. Facebook provides information to and from friends and family. It also does this for students of Walden and for members of other organizations that I belong to. I am not limited to where I need to go to seek information regarding anything in my network. The more variety of avenues, the easier it is for me to learn what is going on.

It has allowed me to be current. "Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities. (Siemens, 2006, p. 31) What has changed for me is now I try different applications to learn how to do something. For example, I have always directly created blogs on blogger.com. I am now using Word 2007 to create blogs that can be directly sent to blogger. Another example is note taking. I have always used a notebook and pen. I use OneNote. OneNote is an electronic notebook application also found in Windows 2007. Now that I have discovered so many faster and more efficient ways of learning through technology, I am now open to looking into more and more areas and not simply believing that one particular one is correct.

When I have questions, I do a Google search, or I go to my classmate and professors by email, phone calls or Skype to find the answers. Like Siemens states, (2006 p. 33)," We forage for knowledge-we keep looking until we find people tools, content, and processes that assist us in solving problems."

 

References:

(2010). Retrieved February 2, 2010, from Getting Started with Microsoft Office OneNote 2007: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/onenote/HA100325211033.aspx

Siemens, G. (2004). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. Retrieved fromhttp://elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm

Siemens, G. (2006). Knowing Knowledge. George Siemens.

 

Collaboration

Howard Rheingold (Rheingold, 2005) expresses that humans have a basic instinct to interact. I believe this to be true. We live in communities, attend schools and places of worship, where there are other people to communicate with. It is important for students to learn independently and create their own opinions or theories about what they've learned. Yet they need to be able to interact with others to benefit from various perspectives. They need to be able to share and seek the advice of others to verify that their thoughts are following the correct path. A prime example of this is Wikipedia that was created by Jimmy Wales (Wales, 2005). Howard Rheingold discusses this "radical idea" as an example of people who want and need to collaborate.

 
 

Rheingold gave an explanation about collective action, were people participate in activities that enrich others and benefit themselves. Initiatives to get people to vote, or raise money for a worthy cause, are additional examples of people having that basic instinct to work for a cause collaboratively.

 

Rheingold, H. (2005, July). Howard Rheingold on collaboration. Retrieved April 12, 2010, from TED Ideas worth spreading: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/howard_rheingold_on_collaboration.html

Wales, J. (2005, July). Jimmy Wales on the Birth of Wikipedia. Retrieved April 12, 2010, from TED Ideas worth spreading: http://www.ted.com/talks/jimmy_wales_on_the_birth_of_wikipedia.html

 

Interesting Blogs:
Collaboration:Latest MetLife Survey Confirms the Power of Teacher Collaboration
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Archive for the ‘constructivism’ Category
http://blog.genyes.com/index.php/category/constructivism/