As the fields of education, teaching and learning are rapidly changing and evolving with the advancements of technology in society, so have its theories. George Siemen's article, Connectivism: A Learning Theory in a Digital Age, offers educators and learners a new/alternative theory that adapts to the rapidly evolving status of knowledge aquisition and transformation. With the advent of technology that has become such an integral part of our society and daily lives, Siemen notes that "knowledge is growing exponentially," and not just within itself but through "links that represent survival in an interconnected world." Going more into depth of this notion of interconnectiveness and linking to other people and even non-human appliances as sources of knowledge, Siemen's video The Impact of Social Software on Learning discusses how "our learning today is one of forming networks with each other." No longer is learning an "internal, individualistic activity" but "a database that needs to be connected with the right people in the right context in order to be classified as learning." By using the new tools that technology has to offer educators and learners alike as a form of social connectivism, our knowledge continues to "grow and evolve" unlike anytime before. According to Siemen's theory, a learner of today is like a tumbleweed. As Siemen states in his article, "connectivism begins with the individual," just as our tubleweed does. A lonely twig is unable to successfully begins his journey across a large, vast desert of knowledge without the help from those around him. As he begins his journey, he picks up other sources of knowledge along the way and begins to form this network with those around him. Each new twig feeds into this new network and a cycle of knowledge development continues back and forth while each twig relies on what the other one has to contribute. In the end our tumbleweed has accrued an abundent amount of resources that has developed into a large ball of knowledge that would have never been able to get across the desert without the help of the other twigs. Just as learners today need to connect with one another and begin to dialogue in order to continue the development and transformation of knowledge within themselves and each other, our tumbleweed has done the same.
Sherry,
ReplyDeleteYour analogy of the learner as a tumbleweed made me to to Wikipedia to find out about such plants because I had always thought of the tumbleweed as a single plant, not one which picks up more weeds as it tumbles. However, this is what I found. "Usually, the tumbleweed is the entire plant apart from the roots, but in a few species it is a flower cluster." So not being a botanist, I'm not sure if you analogy works, but the idea behind it as you have explained your version of a tumbleweed is very accurate. :-)
Dr. Burgos