Connectivism

Cecilia Cela - Analia Guerrero - Ma.Florencia Deluca

TEXT 1.

Connectivism as a learning theory:

Social Context and Connectivism

George Siemens, who is considered as the precursor of Connectivism defines his

theory as a learning theory for the digital age (Siemens, 2004). Therefore, readers may

consider the emergence of Connectivism in a societal context, characterized by the

creation of economical values through networking human intelligence, in order to create

knowledge based products (Floridi, 2008). Considering this new scenario, where

technology plies a significative role, the old industrial era’s structure is transforming into

a society where “The information technology revolution has transformed modes of doing

business, the nature of services and products, the meaning of time in work, and the

processes of learning”( Fenwick, 2001, p. 4).

This process of change is named Globalization and is defined by Finger (2005) in

Merrian, Caffarella & Baumgartner (2006) “as a movement of economic integration, of

cultural homogenization, and of technological uniformization” (p.11).In this context,

learning strategies and educational institutions are changing dramatically. Educational

institutions are becoming part of the market, selling knowledge as a product in a

competitive environment. Consequently, many students are coming to consider

themselves as customers rather than learners (Merriam, et al., 2006). This atmosphere

of change also involves what, how and where people are learning. As a consequence of

the global economy work practices require a different training and preparation (Merriam,

et al. 2006).The continually technological development is forcing workers to continually

update their knowledge and skills. This process is known as “long life-learning”.

During the last several decades, the offering of online programs has increased

dramatically. Online based education has contributed to expand the opportunities of

learning in formal, no formal and informal settings (Merrian et al. 2006). As a result, the

ways of learning are changing. Educational programs are using technologies as an

essential tool in a learning experience. The importance of technology is describes by

Merriam,et al., (2006) as “Technology is integral to the global economy and has

contributed to, if not caused, the shift to an information society, which is creating

dramatic changes in the workforce” (p. 26). Some people assume these changes are an

opportunity for developing their life career with more flexibility and entrepreneurship. On

the other hand, Fenwick (2001) describes the increasing of privatization, deregulation,

reduction of social supports and temporization of workers as a consequence of the

global changes in economics and technological fields.

Within this complex and often contradictory environment emerges the

Connectivism as a new learning theory. Following is offered a summary of the main

ideas elaborated by George Siemens and his supporters, and also some criticism about

Connectivism is included.

According to George Siemens his developer, Connectivism is a learning theory

which is contextualized in a digital era characterized by the influence of technology in

the field of education. Currently Siemens is the Associate Director of Research and

Development at the Learning Technologies Centre at the University of Manitoba in

Canada.

Siemens is an influential thinker on the topic of education and technology, and

most of his works are found on a variety of different web sites, such us

www.connectivism.ca, www.elearnspace.org, www.wikipedia.com among others.

According to Siemens (2004) “learning is a process that occurs within nebulous

environments of shifting core elements – not entirely under the control of individual”. In

addition, Siemens (2006) defines learning “as chaotic, continual, co-creation,

complexity, connected specialization, continual certainty”.

Connectivism defines learning as a continual process which occurs in different

settings including communities of practice, personal networks and work place task.

Siemens has defined the fallowing 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 (2004).

Siemens (2004) suggests that Connectivism is also concerned with how

corporations are facing the challenge of management of knowledge, what resides in

databases which need to be connected with the right people at the right moment. This is

a crucial difference between Connectivism and traditional learning theories.

Fuente. http:// t4tl.wikispaces.com

TEXT 2.

What is connectivism?¿Qué es el conectivismo?

by S. Thüer

“At its heart, connectivism is the thesis that knowledge is distributed across a network of connections, and therefore that learning consists of the ability to construct and traverse those networks”.
Stephen Downes, What Connectivism Is.

Welcome to connectivism blog!
Let’s start with presentations. My name is Sebastián Thüer, I have a degree in Communication Science and I’m attending for doctorate in New Technologies and Communication at Malaga University (Spain). This blog is a space that born from the online course I’m doing about Connectivism and Connective Knowledge.
Connectivims is a theory about learning that, as says the quote above, proposes the basic activity of learning is construct networks thought nodes of information. The main connectivism theorists are George Siemens and Stephen Downes.
The metaphor of learning as a network is not new. As Siemens says, every new theory has roots in previous ideas updated to the actual context. The point is to know if these ideas are useful to build an explicative model that allows to know better the reality.
A interesting way to approach to connectivims is to compare it with other learning theories. Brenga Mergel (1998) has a paper where his quote Peeg Ermet and Tomoty Newby to make five questions the get the basis for a learning theory. The questions are:

1. How does learning occur?
2. What factors influence learning?
3. What is the role of memory?
4. How does transfer occur?
5. What types of learning are best explained by this theory?

Property	Behaviourism	Cognitivism	Constructivism	Connectivism
How learning occurs	Black box—observable behaviour main focus	Structured, computational	Social, meaning created by each learner (personal)	Distributed within a network, social, technologically enhanced, recognizing and interpreting patterns
Influencing factors	Nature of reward, punishment, stimuli	Existing schema, previous experiences	Engagement, participation, social, cultural	Diversity of network, strength of ties
Role of memory	Memory is the hardwiring of repeated experiences—where reward and punishment are most influential	Encoding, storage, retrieval	Prior knowledge remixed to current context	Adaptive patterns, representative of current state, existing in networks
How transfer occurs	Stimulus, response	Duplicating knowledge constructs of “knower”	Socialization	Connecting to (adding) nodes
Types of learning best explained	Task-based learning	Reasoning, clear objectives, problem solving	Social, vague (“ill defined”)	Complex learning, rapid changing core, diverse knowledge sources

 Fuente. http://conectivismo.com/2008/09/what-is-connectivism/

Propuesta de trabajo.

CONNECTIVISM	TEXT 1	TEXT 2
What is it?	Es una teoría del aprendizaje en función de la era digital.	Es una teoría del aprendizaje que propone actividades básicas de aprendizaje basadas en redes de pensamiento.
How is it differnt from others?	La diferecia con otras teorías del aprendizaje es que esta utiliza las innovaciones tecnológicas como herramientas de aprendizaje.	- El aprendizaje es considerado como estructurado y computacional basado en esquemas existentes y experiencias previas. - El rol de la memoria es codificar, almacenar y recuperar.
Which are its priciples?	Sus principios se enmarcan dentro de una sociedad globalizada donde hay una formación diferente, por lo tanto es necesario actualiza constantemente conocimientos y habilidades.	Su principio fundamental es la reactualización de teorías anteriores de acuerdo al contexto social actual.