Connectivism
I recently viewed an online presentation on the concept of connectivism, a theory on how knowledge is created, where it is stored, and how people learn. The presentation was given by George Siemens who is currently working out of the University of Manitoba. In his presentation he promoted a networked approach to learning where knowledge is flowing, dynamic, complex, stored in many places within a network, and “alive”. He challenged the traditional educational setting where the teacher is the dispenser of knowledge and the students receive this knowledge. His criticism of the traditional educational setting was that courses do not adapt rapidly enough to keep pace with the changing knowledge. He said that the greatest value is not the learning of content, but rather in making the connection to the source of the content. It appears that his goal is to have people stay current with knowledge by making connections to be able to locate the most up to date accurate sources of information.
His presentation on connectivism can be viewed at: http://www.elearnspace.org/media/Connectivism_IOC/player.html
Bye for now,
Steve
