Learning Technologies Centre Connectivism 101: For the Curious November 12, 2007 University of Alaska Fairbanks George Siemens

Learning Technologies Centre What was happening: late 90’s/early 00’s Network effect was experientially manifested Control was shifting User generated content Lower barriers: We could create, collaborate, share with relative ease

Learning Technologies Centre What was happening in late 90’s/early 00’s Information explosion accelerating Edublog community rapidly developing Learning from each other: distributed, co-formation of understanding Rise of everyone

Learning Technologies Centre Learning didn’t feel like the theories said

Learning Technologies Centre We need a view of learning that recognizes: Changing information base (capacity to know) Role of technology Place/time shifted collaboration Shared sense making Life long learning Connected specialization Diversity Principality of connections

Learning Technologies Centre Contributing factors Dissatisfied learners Engagement Changing world: how we relate to information Upheaval in information fields (blame the network) –News, music, video, software, scholarship

Learning Technologies Centre Learning/life had changed

Learning Technologies Centre The few became the network

Learning Technologies Centre Points of failure Unneeded control LMS models (centralized/clunky) –Good for administrators –Terrible for learners and faculty LOs starting to peel hype layer Structured and planned=outdated

Learning Technologies Centre Heisenberg principle of information/learning: if you can describe it, it has changed

Learning Technologies Centre Origin Lots of stuff before I ever got here 2003 article – networks, ecologies 2004 article – self-published 2005 – IJTDL 2005 – Downes: Connective Knowledge 2006 – Wilson: “The diagram” Simultaneous: networked learning Edublog space exploded (see edublog awards)

Learning Technologies Centre Connectivism: Theory of learning developed in the manner it states learning occurs Downes, Cross, Richardson, Verhagen, Kerr, Anderson, Blackall, Sessums, Fisher, Hiebert, Wilson, Fiedler (plus a few hundred others) How did they contribute? Why did they contribute? How’s that for authentic?

Learning Technologies Centre What is connectivism? Knowledge distributed Learning as networked process (i.e. forming connections) Principles form base of all design

Learning Technologies Centre Three levels: Neural Conceptual (Sweller, Novak) External (people, information sources)

Learning Technologies Centre But is that learning?

Learning Technologies Centre “More than anything else, being an educated person means being able to see connections that allow one to make sense of the world and act within it in creative ways” William Cronon, 1998

Learning Technologies Centre The network became the locus of change

Learning Technologies Centre What is knowledge?

Learning Technologies Centre Where is it found?

Learning Technologies Centre “All the knowledge is in the connections” David Rumelhart

Learning Technologies Centre Learning in relationship to knowledge and mind Distributed – –Hutchins – Not “in skull” –Spivey et. al. – “not always inside brain” –Bereiter – “knowing outside the mind” Externalization – Wittgenstein, Vygotsky Socialization – Papert, Piaget, Bruner, Bandura

Learning Technologies Centre The network became a lever of influence

Learning Technologies Centre The aim: Deep understanding Complex worldviews Multi-context Assimilative/adaptive Agility/stability (Oblinger)