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Connectivism, "a learning theory for the digital age," has been developed by George Siemens and Stephen Downes based on their analysis of the limitations of behaviourism, cognitivism and constructivism to explain the effect technology has had on how we live, how we communicate, and how we learn.

An ongoing debate has ensued around the status of George Siemens' (2004) connectivism theory and Stephen Downes' (2006) connected knowledge theory as learning theories for the network age (Kop & Hill, 2008).

What is it about connectivism that stirs up such strong emotion? In my experience it has now been strongly attacked in public at least twice - the first during CCK08 by Catherine Fitzpatrick - who voiced her objections in no uncertain terms and more recently by Marielle Lange in Wikipedia. Perhaps the interesting thing about both these instances is that they end up as personal attacks on Stephen Downes and George Siemens. Why?

E-learning has been around for ten years or so. During that time, it has emerged from being a radical idea-the effectiveness of which was yet to be proven-to something that is widely regarded as mainstream. And now, e-learning is evolving with the World Wide Web as a whole and it's changing to a degree significant enough to warrant a new name: E-learning 2.0.

Teachers are starting to explore the potential of blogs, media-sharing services and other social software - which, although not designed specifically for e-learning, can be used to empower students and create exciting new learning opportunities.

This article describes my strategy for writing quickly and expertly.

A slideshow about open educational resources and what that means.

Connectivism as a pedagogical theory is typically thought of in terms of networks, but the major practical implication of connectivism occurs in the organization of learning eventes and resources. Unlike traditional educatioinal modalities, in which people work collaboratively, in a connectivist model, people work cooperatively.

The point of an argument is to give reasons in support of some conclusion. An argument commits a fallacy when the reasons offered do not support the conclusion. These pages describe the known logical fallacies.

Our knowledge, our intelligence, must be based on something emergent from the connective activity of many individual neurons, can't be based on the content of a neuron, has to be based on the pattern of connectivity of these neurons. We replicate that in connectivist teaching.

Explores 2 questions about connectivism.

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.

Maintaining that learning theories should be reflective of underlying social environments, Siemens (2004) describes the limitations of behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism (and the epistemological traditions which underpin them - objectivism, pragmatism and interpetivism - and their representations of what is reality and knowledge) to introduce connectivism as 'a learning theory for the digital age.'

The purpose of this paper is to outline some of the thinking behind new e-learning technology, including e-portfolios and personal learning environments. Part of this thinking is centered around the theory of connectivism, which asserts that knowledge - and therefore the learning of knowledge - is distributive, that is, not located in any given place (and therefore not 'transferred' or 'transacted' per se) but rather consists of the network of connections formed from experience and interactions with a knowing community. And another part of this thinking is centered around the new, and the newly empowered, learner, the member of the net generation, who is thinking and interacting in new ways. These trends combine to form what is sometimes called 'e-learning 2.0'-an approach to learning that is based on conversation and interaction, on sharing, creation and participation, on learning not as a separate activity, but rather, as embedded in meaningful activities such as games or workflows.

A blog, therefore, is and has always been more than the online equivalent of a personal journal. Though consisting of regular updates, the blog adds to the form of the diary by incorporating the best features of hypertext: the capacity to link to new and useful resources. But a blog is also characterized by its reflection of a personal style, and this style may be reflected in either the writing or the selection of links passed along to readers. Blogs are, in their purest form, the core of what has come to be called personal publishing.