Group items tagged

This article explains connectivism with academic advising. Within this article, the writer states that connectivism can be useful to help combine old information to new information. It then states how that will help people to understand new material by connecting it to the old material. The writer also states how technology has impacted connectivism. It says connectivism is influencing students' decisions and knowledge through Siri, Amazon Echo, etc and that those tools of technology or other resources they have access to are impacting their decisions based on connections they've made to other information.

This is an interesting article that explains connectivism in the context of academic advising. I found this especially helpful as it makes it easier to understand connetivism as you first receive information and then that information is put into a contextual situation.

This article explores the ways in which using a model of connectivism can help an academic advisor in higher education better connect with or direct the student they are assisting. One example features the way in which students view their advisor, where some students see the advisor as a guidance counselor others are able to differentiate between the two roles distinctly. The article continues on with various examples of interactions and scenarios that students and advisors could encounter that when approached through the model of connectivism would assist the student in combining thoughts, theories, and general information.

Suggests that understanding how members of a learning community converse is an important component of understanding connectivism. The tone of the interactions in a forum rely on the design and management of the space. Furthermore, learning depends on sharing in conversations and interactions which themselves can be meaningful activities. During communication among learners, there is a balance of what is good for each individual and the ability to move towards a common purpose.

In this article, Andrew Ravenscroft explores a "dialogue rich view of connectivism" and how we can develop learners that can "think, reason and analyse." He takes inspiration from social constructivist theory to focus on dialogue as a vehicle for learning. Ravenscroft begins by detailing Siemens 8 principles of connectivism. He then asks 3 questions: how can we understand the dialogue processes of a networked world, what dialogue features make for quality connections and how do we design to promote quality connections. He starts to explore the questions with Socrates and the Socratic method. This method has applications for 21st century learning. He reviews Hegel's dialectic as well. Ravenscroft maps these positions to connectivism because dialectic helps refine knowledge from a diversity of opinions, supports the capacity to know more, consideration of alternative viewpoints, fosters a constant evolution of knowledge, and promotes critical and collaborative dialogue. Then he discusses dialogic processes and how they map to connectivism. Dialectic and dialogic can work, not in opposition, but together in different aspects. Dialectic focuses on the epistemic and cognitive dimensions of learning, while dialogic focuses more on emotional and interpersonal aspects. The author then details dialogue game interactions and how they can foster learning. To be successful they need to balance orchestration and openness. This article proposes that language and dialogue remain a "most powerful semiotic system."

What a fascinating article. Ravenscroft's discussion of a scaffolded system to build a learner's dialogic skills reminds me of research I did for my EdTech504 class on self-regulated learning. Roger Azevedo is developing and experimenting with a similar game, MetaTutor, which scaffolds student learning as well. I think self-regulation is complex and difficult to teach in the classroom, and am amazed that researchers are creating software to build self-efficacy!

The authors state the the use of blogs as aggregators for student Personal Learning Networks (PLN) is an effective tool to help organize the many fascists of unique environments. They point out that in order for students to successfully create and use their own PLNs there must first be a successful example by an instructor for the students to model. They point out that although students may be using several of the tools that will ultimately comprise their PLNs, it is a fallacy to assume that students inherently understand the power and connectedness of these environments.

This article explores connectivism as a learning theory, then discusses how to use personal learning networks in your communities of practice. The author quotes from many experts in communities of practice and connectivism. Much detail was given to blogging.

Although this article is focused specifically on public affairs education, it is relevant to all learners. The author discusses professional learning networks as methods to connect and build communities of practice. Using personal experiences teaching a college course, the author's creation of communities of practice took learning for students to the next level.

The article discussed the origins of the theory and what organizations should do to implement the theory.  

An article about connectivism and the beginnings of this theory. Connectivism brings a big change to the learning design in schools and organizations. Examples are given in this article of how connectivism could be implemented.

While learning about PLE's, I wondered how it affects learning in the classroom and I stumbled across this article. This article discusses the flexible form of a PLE and how it helps students meld their own learning spaces. It can be difficult to incorporate such a new type of network in the classroom, but the research and examples in the article shows many ways that developing PLE's can help students develop their own learning and knowledge development.

I think this is a good article discussing the initial concept of a PLN and how it can be used in the classroom. I had never heard of Symbaloo, but can see how it can be helpful as an educational resource, just like we are using Diigo.

Summary: Although the paper identifies three challenges to Connectivist Learning (self-directed, presence and critical literacies) the findings, based on Kop's research, suggest that social networked learning does work. The paper includes students responses, both positive and negative, about their learning experiences. I found that aspect of the paper fascinating.

This paper highlights current theories of learning and gives a critical analysis of connectivism ""within the context of its predecessors" in a attempt to establish whether this theory is indeed anything new to offer for teaching and learning in the digital era.

This article looks at the challenges that could be faced by using PLEs and Connectivisim in social networking. The article breaks down the challenges to Connectivist learning and then explains the research methodology behind their findings.

This article gives a brief overview of PLNs but then gives tips on developing your own.

The author provides tips for educators to network and grow their PLNs. He likes to ask educators to consider the following questions:Who is in your learning network? Who do you learn from on a regular basis? Who do you turn to for your own professional development? He provides some great ideas to expand your learning base.

As I begin to develop a PLN, reflecting on these three questions will be helpful. Including suggestions to expanding the network are equally helpful.

This article really helped to define knowledge in the Connectivist theory. To know something, means that you are able to organize and connect ideas together. The author makes a brilliant point that the more connections you have to the idea, the stronger your knowledge of it is. It also states that it is more important to continue to search for more knowledge and connections than it is to be satisfied with what is currently known.

This article discusses different learning theories. One of the theories was network semantics and connective learning. This section describes what it means to be a network. Then it connects networks to what it means to be connective.

After reading this article I can get my head around how important PLN are and I applied it to my corporate job. Both my peers and the people who report to me connect in many ways.

This is a great site to get started understanding the benefits of PLN's. In particular, I like the fact that when discussing the benefits of PLN's the author, Education in America, brings up the fact that even though teachers are surrounded by students and colleagues, teaching can be an isolating experience. I've been there, and I know that having a PLN has not only made me feel connected, but also it has helped me share ideas in a more personal way.

I liked the fact that this site recognizes that "teaching can be an isolated profession"! Very interesting article.

I have to agree with the statement in this article about teaching being an isolated profession. I felt that many times and often wished that I had the remedy. In hindsight, I think a better network would have been helpful. Most of my time spent in a traditional classroom setting (face to face instruction) was as a lone teacher in a very small school. A better PLN would have been very helpful.

Stevens, V. (2008). Trial by Twitter: The rise and slide of the year's most viral microblogging platform. TESL-EJ: Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language, 12(1). This article did not focus just on Connectivism or just on communities of practice but provided a clear example of both after my previous readings. If you think about the basic fundamental of twitter it would be easy to discount at first whether or not it would be successful. I'm sure along the way some may have even felt that it was a fad destined to fail or fade. Who would want to be limited to only one hundred and fifty characters to get out a complete thought and why would anyone be interested. Well right now according to this article twitter is the most popular microblogging tool that has existed. I found it interesting if you have read my previous articles especially about linguistics in communities of practice that twitter type has made its way into our everyday vernacular, such as saying hash tag in actual dictation. Interesting that a change in our speech and actions are indicators of belonging to a certain community of practice, much like how some groups say 'lol' instead of actually laughing out loud. This article draws these dots that are easily linked together to show Connectivism. The author spends time explaining when he "got" twitter, or when it dawned on him this is an excellent tool. From there he uses some great analogies to describe the connected world twitter produces for millions of users a day. My favorite quote from his article "To 'get' twitter, you have to have your finger on the pulse of what is pumping lifeblood through the Internet, and that is the people on it and how they come together (Connectivism), connect, and relate to one another (communities of practice) in virtual learning networks". (Stevens,2008)

I didn't realize Twitter had been around as long as it has - I also didn't know it's origins. Lost most of the social media sites it's changed a lot since the beginning!

Great post and I was cracking up at "The Twitter Curve" image. It gave a good explanation to me about what makes Twitter so powerful and its benefits but am also glad it touched on things to be leery of.

Summary: This article identifies possible gaps in Connectivism (as a learning theory) and its interpretation when it comes to MOOCs. The article explores the principles that are not addressed or not supported by Connectivism. Some of these "forgotten" principles are: motivation, self-efficacy, cognitive load, prior knowledge, avoids scaffolding, doesn't differentiate between expert and novice, and ignores novices' needs.

Loved the line "I'm ideologically promiscuous."

I like the point made that not everyone is actually a "Node" in a MOOC or similar connectivist structure. I agree with the author that this will always be the case because we unfortunately are not " all digitally literate nodes, knowledge is in the network, we are all motivated, have good learning strategies, and information sifting abilities, and can cope with multi-platform information streams...". Great find!

***You will likely have to sign in to the Albertson's Library to access this article! This article provides examples of how Karl Fisch uses his own personal learning network. He references electronic sources, books, and face-to-face interactions that all represent critical parts of his PLN.

As students construct personal learning environments, teacher instruction and support is likely to be needed. PLE's must be constructed based on needs, and students may or may not be able to articulate what their learning needs are.

Today, students already have personal learning environments, but as teachers we have the ability to forge new pathways to learning by utilizing what kids already know and modeling collaboration and exploration.

Wow! What a cool article. I really enjoyed the picture of the Networked student. This article is like a how to for a teacher wanting to teach the 21st century student. It makes me wonder if our school system should provide a class on how to set up a method for each student to display their learning or their personal learning environment.

The authors look at connectivism through the lens of a literature review and a qualitative interview session with educators. With these sources the paper examines the pros and cons of connectivism including its limitations as a postulated theory. The conclusions drawn are that behaviourism, cognitivism and constructivism fall short to fully explain modern learning realities, but that it is unclear if connectivism can be seen as the next stage of learning theory evolution for several reasons.

You are right about this being a "very detailed" definition of connectivism. I appreciate is the "conclusions and suggestions" section which challenges the labeling of connectivism as a learning theory as opposed to a pedagogical approach. I completed a research paper in EDTECH501 in regards to the relationship of connectivism and mastery learning, and never once did I read about this debate. To me, the fact that connectivism is more concerned with the process of learning rather than the end product proves that it is in fact a learning theory.

I really agree this article does a nice job contradicting the value or criteria of connectivism as a learning theory versus a pedagogical approach. Many of you discussed this above so I will leave it alone. The piece I wanted to comment on came at the end of the article when the author brought up the idea that older teachers take longer to learn the digital aspects and are less likely to engage in adapting the practice. Where younger teachers who grew up in this era are more apt to use and utilize web 2.0 tools in their teaching and engage in this model of teaching and learning themselves. I have to be honest that I saw some of these same things in our school when we went to a 1:1 iPad. Many of the younger and newer teachers jumped in and had very little learning curve in understanding what was happening. Where older teachers struggled or resisted the change. I would be interested in what others experiences were as well?

This is a guest written article about creating a PLN. It has very good graphics illustrating a PLN. It also describes the different components of a PLN including information aggregation tools and the social media connections. It even shows the step for a beginner to get started including resources to use and also blogs to follow. Short and sweet and to the point.

Hi Cinnamon! Great resource! I really thought some of the graphics and links included in the article were helpful. The section on information aggregation and social media connections at the end of the article was especially helpful.

This article provides a snapshot of how personal learning networks work and their benefits. Torrey Trust explains that PLNs allow for professional development to be catered to your specific needs at that moment. Educators can seek instant feedback for questions or ideas they may share. She also outlines the main tools that make PLNs work, information aggregation and social media. It is a good article to for educators new to PLNs. It provides a good understanding of why PLNs are important to professional development and also explains the ways in which the information is shared.

This article is written in-response-to-a-response of an earlier article by the author (titled Researching religious education pedagogy through an action research community of practice - I've posted it as my #6 article). It seems that the response to the original article was critical of the a few items, most notably questioning whether the unnatural makeup of the group (too homogeneous or heterogeneous compared to the "general public") makes the practice invalid. Also, the article brings into question the nature of practice and theory, and how both impact one another.

This short article emphasizes how social networks can build your Personal Learning Network. One great advantage is that your PLN can be accessed 24/7 The article suggests the use of Twitter, blogging, and other Social sites to connect with other education professionals to collaborate and learn.

I appreciate learning in context. Seeing how the PLN functions through Facebook and Twitter certainly filled in more blanks for me. Even though I am not a great blogger, the articles focus on student, parent, teacher, administrator communication hammered the value home.

This article really hit home, and made the CTE teacher in me say WOW! It was short and to the point on how students can really utilize social media as a tool to hone their learning. Great find Matt!

An article providing a premise for using social media on using social media in low skilled adult classes to gain more skills. The article also points out the lack of research into social media in adult education.

An explanation of a the basic components of a network - nodes and connections and how the relate to learning. The article explain how connections can grow stronger or lose relevance over time.

In this article, Siemens explains connectivism. He begins by explaining how networks are formed. The vocabulary is technical and suggests non-human networks. Factors that strengthen connections are motivation, emotions, exposure, patterning, logic, and experience. Learning is often synergistic as the network forms, but for learning to occur, a new connection must be encultured and connected to the entire network.

Networked learning is a subset of connectivism. This background article by George Siemens describes how networks are actually formed. He also discusses 8 attributes of networked learning.