Group items tagged

Focusing on the use of Twitter in a PLN, a study was conducted involving seven educators. The results were encouraging as Twitter provided an excellent medium for personalizing their PLN and having immediate access. Although much of the article goes on to explain how Twitter works in a roundabout way, it does explain the merits of open and public forums for collaboration and discussion.

This article covers a small scale research project done to see how important the use of Twitter was within a personal learning network. It was interesting to see how impactful Twitter could be within a PLN.

I love how this article validates the effectiveness of Twitter in the building of one's PLN. I have engaged in numerous Twitter chats with like-minded educators and found great benefit in building my PLN. Thanks for linking a great article!

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!

This is a Voicthread slide show  that incorporated groups solving math problems.  This is a great idea.

I am married to a gamer. This is seriously unique and incredible. It is a twist on the social media "norm", but it still fits because I had forgotten that there are RPGs (role-playing-games) that allow conversation and collaboration amongst players. This is a great idea!

This teacher tried using Twitter for the first time with a group of 90 students. The most success in conversations happened when she was able to break students down into small groups so that it wasn't so overwhelming.

The link to my Positive Digital Footprint Plan. References: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10HnuvY_Ib97d5MYfKVH0mW7j7am2e3BhliBuvEYSZdA/edit?usp=sharing

In this article, Ravenscroft adds to the conversation surrounding connectivism by focusing on dialogue. Ravesncroft argues that connectivism can benefit from social constructivist perspectives.

Tackk is a place to connect with friends, be creative and have fun conversations.

Open a room for discussion. Extend the conversation beyond the classroom, or encourage back-channeling.

George Siemens and Stephen Downs were offering a free course to the first 2200 people to discover connectivism and study its principals. They chose a free online course format to illustrate connectivism.

I love the explanation of connectivism at the beginning. The explicitness with which they say it's not about the content but the process is refreshing and true to my experience in the classroom as well. There are many days when I know the student will never remember the content I taught but they will remember how they found it and the way that they discussed, dissected, and applied it to their selves.

I think out of all the articles I read about connectivism, this one was the easiest for me to understand and truly grasp the meaning of connectivism. The author gave clear examples of how learning happens through connectivism and that the course he was providing truly used this theory in helping the learners. This article helped me solidify how important I think schooling is for school aged children and the connections they make with their peers academically and socially. They are using this theory without even thinking about it, and in connecting with others ideas they are learning on their own without a teacher telling them facts, dates or formulas.

This website has a live thread of conversation from teachers all over the world discussing game based learning. Many teachers give great advice on what to try in classrooms and there are also videos and resources to use as well.

People learn from watching others and then applying that knowledge in their own experiences; learning is seen as a social process rather than an acquisition of knowledge; in order to be useful, knowledge needs to have a context within a community

Students in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania asked questions over Skype to scientists from CERN the European Organization of Nuclear Research and Fermilab. All felt is was a" high-quality conversation and demonstration medium".

Interesting observations about a middle school 1:1 program.

"A place for educators to find thought-provoking news, conversation and support for those who care about diversity, equal opportunity and respect for differences in schools"

Invited by Siemens, Kerr offers a challenge to the theory of connectivism.

Interesting read. Admittedly, the dine differences between learning theories is a bit beyond me, but if Siemens thought it was important that people heard the counter view then it must be substantive. While some of the comments by Kerr don't seem to necessarily counter Siemens' views, they certainly do add to the conversation.