EDTECH at Boise State University

This is great, Courtney. I hadn't seen these 6 pieces before or had noticed them in previous research. It explains the theory nicely at the end of the first sections by saying that "knowledge does not exist in the heads of learners or instructors but through the variety of connections established amongst students, instructors and technologies." I think that this concept deserves more thought and analysis. Are moving away from knowledge contained within our minds in favor of connectedness and what effect will this have on our collective consciousness concerning history and an awareness of the past.

Courtney, the more I look at Connectivism, the more I think it is learning of the 21st Century. Everyday in class I notice the connections students make - whether it is the Internet, collaboration from other teachers or parents or social media. There is so much knowledge out there to find. Now it is up to us teachers to help the kids find it. I feel less intimidated by not knowing everything. Let the universe help in our knowledge.

What a great resource! Thanks for sharing @courtneylarue11. As you mentioned the "6 skills for connectivist pedagogs" is extremely valuable. I like reading all the reasons why this is needed NOW, because I whole heartedly agree but I can't wait until we get to the HOW this can happen in ALL classrooms.

This article defines Personal Learning Network and shares how their structures have changed over time through the authors personal experience.

Teaching Village - Great teacher resources for PLN and other teacher information. This has all kinds of good information and teacher resources.

I seem to have picked the same articles as everyone else!

Jessica, very nice resource on PLN's through the Teaching Village site. I like how they define the PLN during the decades. Investigating the nav tabs it seems that it is based for a primary school environment.

Like many others, I had no clue what PLN was until this class! This is a very simple example of a PLN defining a PLN! I also liked how they described PLNs through the last 3 decades.

This article represents the authors attempt to retell her journey of creating a PLN. She begins by describing her PLN in the 80's which consisted of people getting together to discuss books they had read. She then moves on to discuss the 90's and the inclusion of the internet and email into her PLN. Finally it concludes with a discussion of the current century and how PLN's have been affected by social media and the resulting implications.

This blog discusses what a PLN is, and how it has evolved over the years. It clearly shows that as technology became more accessible across the world, it allowed PLN's to grow as well.

This explains what a PLN is and how it has changed over the years as technology has advanced. It also talks about what a current PLN looks like, and how things like Twitter and other networking tools are used.

The paper outlines 4 key principles for connected learning - autonomy, connectedness, diversity, and openness. The authors' point of view is that all four principles can be "expanded to recognize individual and psychological diversity within connective environments." They conclude by saying that it is in the "context and recognition of the engagement" that makes connectivism a "viable framework for learning, offering great potential..."

In 2011, George Siemens and Stephen Downes launched a massive open online course called "Connectivism and Connected Knowledge" (CCK11.) The article defines Connectivism as "network-based pedagogy" and discusses why these authors value "the process" over "the product." Specifically, why the process of taking the course would be in itself much more important than what learners may have learned. Additionally, they offer 4 major components: aggregation, remixing, repurposing, and feeding forward. In the nutshell, the article argues that, as far as connectivism in concerned, knowledge is not something that can be "neatly packaged and passed along as a finished product"; rather, it is "complicated, distributed, mixed with other concepts, looks differently to different people.."

Interesting to see the authors explaining connectivism in light of personality theory and self-determination theory rather than trying to argue it as a learning theory akin to behaviorism, cognitivism, or constructivism. I appreciated their inclusion of Downes' four key components of connectivism: autonomy, connectedness, diversity, and openness. As I read their discussion of autonomy, my mind was drawn to Daniel Pink's explanation of intrinsic motivation, which is comprised of three key aspects: Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose. [See Pink, D. (2009). Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us. New York, NY: Riverhead Books.] This piece was a helpful read with a very different perspective than I had previously encountered for connectivism.