Monday, October 11, 2010
Since I have started the IST program, we have learned so many terms. All of the "ism" have been quite difficult to interpret as there are so many theories behind them that in a sense explain them slightly different but different enough to make them confusing. Connectivism is no different. When I saw the agenda, boy was I not at all happy as this is a topic that has been brought up in every single IST class that I have taken at IU. Connectivism states that knowledge exists in the world rather than in the head of an individual. Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong! I did find a YouTube video that helped to clarify my year and a half confusion so please check it out: Connectivism and Connective Knowledge.
Nicholas Carr wrote Is Google Making Us Stupid? Honestly, it depends on ones perception. Mimi Ito's stated that we are making ourselves stupid. We rely to much on at hand information rather that researching for ourselves. To me, I use Charles Darwin as an example. What if he had decided that he wasn't going to go research in the Galapagos Islands and long story short develop the Theory of Evolution? Then he nor his theory would have been well known internationally by him and humankind's thought on the theory on life would have potentially yet to been questioned. On the counter hand, John Seely states that Google is making us stupid. If we do not know an answer, we simply search it. Google has taken the place of search. Other search engines are out there such as Bing but Google is still popular and well used. to me, I believed that both people are saying the same things just in different ways. It goes back to the idea of Connectivism. Though it is a simple definition, here we have two well known scholars explaining it in very different terms.
I started this week with the questions:
1. What exactly does the term Connectivism mean in relations to IST?
2. What is the importance of Connectivism?
3. Is connectivism a learning theory or a pedagogy?
4. Is learning able to reside or exist in non-human appliances? Explain.
5. What is the significance of zeitgeit in terms of connectivism?
I still feel like I could not answer any of these. I did like Abdullah's explanation of #1 in that "In general I think Connectivism is a nice approach to learning that can be utilized by IST folks while designing instruction" (October 2010), however I would like an expansion of how.
This is one topic I do not truly think I will ever fully understand.
References
1. Charles Darwin. "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life," 1859.
2. Abdullah Altuwaijri. Oncourse -> Forums -> Week 7 Connectivism, Social Knowledge, and Participatory Learning. Posted October 24, 2010.
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to say I agree with you in that connectivism is not an easy concept. The notion that knowledge can be outside the brain is not new - consider books as an established example. However, the notion that LEARNING can be outside the brain, that the network itself learns...that can takes some effort. From the blogs around the net I think that some people see connectivism as simply using the resources available of the net - but that is the easy bit. The notion that the network itself learns is a challenge - so I was glad to see that you also have the same issue.
Your Questions are in everyone's head. The idea of Connectivism is still formulating, I think, and it needs to be linked more to existing learning theories to be called theory. I think for now it is more of a learning style/approach, but it would not fully explain how learning occurs!
ReplyDeleteNicholas Carr is bringing an interesting approach toward all this learning and knowledge available for us, his concerns, in my opinion, serve as a reflecting point where we need to keep the big picture in our mind while trying to make sense of all of this.
Abdullah