Connectivism

I took ITEC 800 last fall and for the whole semester my mind is echoed with Behaviorism, Cognitivism and Constructivism. When I read George Siemens' article about a new learning theory-Connectivism, I felt like the window of my room is suddenly open by a blow of spring wind and the whole world is spread out in front of me! When I bury my nose in the ITEC 800 textbook and brainstorm with peers in class, it never came to my mind that any idea would be newer and current than constructivism. How ignorant and isolated I am! Behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism interpret intrapersonal learning ways while connectivism shines a light on interpersonal learning way. That's such a cool breakthrough.

I really appreciate Siemens' remarks that "informal learning is a significant aspect of our learning experience" "Learning now occurs in a variety of ways". We learn through communities and personal networks, either in the real world or the virtual world. Internet contributes a lot to the flexibility of learning ways and also changes the mode of learning. Like Siemens says, "Know-how and know-what is being supplemented with know-where". The amount of knowledge is doubling every 18 months, so it's impossible and unnecessary to be know-all in this information-explosion world. The smart way is to know where to find the information you want, either by "Google that" or "twitter that".

I found a nice picture in Google image:



Connectivism starts from the individual. Personal knowledge is the dot of a network, which in return provide learning to individual. In this learning process, individual learners can remain current thanks to the connections.