Saturday, August 2, 2014

ED7714 Connectivism

I'm trying to wrap my mind around Connectivism.
Here is a "Coggle" that describes Connectivism for me:



Visual learners can benefit from using a tool like Coggle. It is easy to see the connections between the categories. Like an outline, Coggle breaks concepts down into smaller parts.  Unlike an outline, it is possible to work on parts of the outline in random order, more like brainstorming.

Personally, I thoroughly enjoy learning in a web environment. My "network learning projects" over the years include the health benefits of Kombucha and Kefir, making professional-looking lined curtains, constructing a Super Mario pinata, and using a variety cooking techniques. I am just not sure how this fits into public education. I hope this year's coursework will help me through some of this. One of the reasons I chose the IT&DML 6th year was because I know the information is out there... and it is free... I just don't know where to begin. I need direction.

As a librarian, I know I can help students with research skills. I agree that it is often more important to know how to find something than it is to outright know something. I also think that it is important that students understand the validity/credibility of their sources either on the web or in print. I struggle with how to stress the importance of this in the brief time I get to meet with students.

The articles I read were written seven years ago and more. The second author, John Seeley Brown, was enamored with the fact that the youth with whom he worked seemed to multitask seamlessly. He was amazed and attributed it to rewiring of the brain. Current studies indicate that multitasking is inefficient, causes errors, and slows people down. ( example: http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Family/Modern-Parenthood/2013/1114/Multitasking-What-a-professor-knows-that-students-don-t ) It will be interesting to see where we go now that we are talking about "Connectivism" as a learning style.

2 comments:

  1. Love Coggle!!! Seems so intuitive with all it's processes. It reminds me of Inspiration and Kidspiration that my district heavly invested in. It allows you to throw your ideas out there and move it all around to make sense. I believe that it's a challenge for our teachers to bring students to a curation level with their assignments if they aren't connected to digital life.

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  2. It is a challenge to bring together all of these disparate parts in Coggle. Think about the fun you'll have in the digital portfolio class when you create one portfolio your whole online life. :)

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