Okay, I admit that I rebelled against joining Twitter for the longest time. I had friends and family members urging me to join. I often said, "Why should I join another social networking site? I have not used MySpace for a while and am quite happy with Facebook." Those who were part of the Twitter community kept insisting that I join because in their words it was better than Facebook. I had no idea what I was missing on Twitter. Months would pass and I was quite determined that I did not need Twitter. I was fine without it. I kept social networking for my personal life. I did not see why I needed it otherwise.
this is a form of transactive memory...very relevant to Emotional intelligence and collaboration
Learning, as a self-organizing process
requires that the system (personal or organizational learning systems)
“be informationally open, that is, for it to be able to classify
its own interaction with an environment, it must be able to change its
structure…”
Vaill emphasizes that
“learning must be a way of being – an ongoing set of attitudes
and actions by individuals and groups that they employ to try to keep
abreast o the surprising, novel, messy, obtrusive, recurring events…”
(1996, p.42).
Informal learning is a significant aspect of our learning experience.
Formal education no longer comprises the majority of our learning. Learning
now occurs in a variety of ways – through communities of practice,
personal networks, and through completion of work-related tasks.
To be fair, I think informal learning has always been a significant aspect of our learning experience. It's just that in the "past", it was easier for the "man" to put down informal learning because the infrastructure of business didn't allow you to work outside the box of climbing up the ladder. Now you build your own ladder- damn the "man"!
Interpretivism (similar to constructivism) states that reality
is internal, and knowledge is constructed.
Observable behaviour is more important than understanding internal
activities
Behaviour should be focused on simple elements: specific stimuli
and responses
Learning is about behaviour change
Booo! This is only true if Henry Ford is still ruling the world!
Constructivism assumes
that learners are not empty vessels to be filled with knowledge. Instead,
learners are actively attempting to create meaning. Learners often select
and pursue their own learning. Constructivist principles acknowledge that
real-life learning is messy and complex. Classrooms which emulate the
“fuzziness” of this learning will be more effective in preparing
learners for life-long learning.
In a networked world, the
very manner of information that we acquire is worth exploring.
Mr. Seimens, are you a librarian? You have all the symptoms!
When knowledge is subject to
paucity, the process of assessing worthiness is assumed to be intrinsic
to learning. When knowledge is abundant, the rapid evaluation of knowledge
is important.
The ability to synthesize and recognize connections
and patterns is a valuable skill.
Content Curation, evaluation of resources, evaluation of authority are all essential and at the core of Connectivism.
“Experience has long been considered the best teacher of knowledge.
Since we cannot experience everything, other people’s experiences,
and hence other people, become the surrogate for knowledge. ‘I
store my knowledge in my friends’ is an axiom for collecting knowledge
through collecting people (undated).”
Skype in the Classroom, Scoop.It, Diigo... the list goes on and on. We need to support students in recognizing these communities and forming connections with the people who can help them find their way!
Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions.
Information flow within an organization is an important element in organizational
effectiveness. In a knowledge economy, the flow of information is the
equivalent of the oil pipe in an industrial economy. Creating, preserving,
and utilizing information flow should be a key organizational activity.
Knowledge flow can be likened to a river that meanders through the ecology
of an organization. In certain areas, the river pools and in other areas
it ebbs. The health of the learning ecology of the organization depends
on effective nurturing of information flow.
Great PD oriented question - how are we making sure information flows through our school, and that all teachers are accessing knowledge about teaching and learning?
Management and leadership.
Media, news, information.
Personal knowledge management
Design of learning environments
Connectivism presents a model of learning that acknowledges the tectonic
shifts in society where learning is no longer an internal, individualistic
activity. How people work and function is altered when new tools are utilized.
The field of education has been slow to recognize both the impact of new
learning tools and the environmental changes in what it means to learn.
Connectivism provides insight into learning skills and tasks needed for
learners to flourish in a digital era.
Connectivism is driven by the understanding that decisions are based
on rapidly altering foundations. New information is continually being
acquired. The ability to draw distinctions between important and unimportant
information is vital. The ability to recognize when new information alters
the landscape based on decisions made yesterday is also critical.
Importance of pushing students to engage in connection based learning for their EEs and personal projects
John Seely Brown presents an interesting notion that the internet leverages
the small efforts of many with the large efforts of few. The central premise
is that connections created with unusual nodes supports and intensifies
existing large effort activities. Brown provides the example of a Maricopa
County Community College system project that links senior citizens with
elementary school students in a mentor program. The children “listen
to these “grandparents” better than they do their own parents,
the mentoring really helps the teachers…the small efforts of the
many- the seniors – complement the large efforts of the few –
the teachers.” (2002).
Reminds of the image that says that what will matter most in media is whether or not a story gets read by several thousand people within the first few days, not where the story lives.
Behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism are the three
broad learning theories most often utilized in the creation of instructional
environments.
Landauer and Dumais (1997) explore the phenomenon that “people
have much more knowledge than appears to be present in the information
to which they have been exposed”.
Valid sources of knowledge - Do we gain knowledge through experiences?
Is it innate (present at birth)? Do we acquire it through thinking and
reasoning?
Behaviorism states that learning is largely unknowable, that is, we
can’t possibly understand what goes on inside a person (the “black
box theory”). Gredler (2001) expresses behaviorism as being comprised
of several theories that make three assumptions about learning:
Vaill emphasizes that "learning must be a way of being - an ongoing set of attitudes and actions by individuals and groups that they employ to try to keep abreast o the surprising, novel, messy, obtrusive, recurring events…" (1996, p.42).