Connectivism

May 12, 2010 Thoughts on Connectivism - George Siemens speaks about how social networking evolved after individuals in the technology industry needed a method to stay current and keep up with the trends - They needed to be in touch with the latest trends and innovations so they developed social media network sites - One of the off shoots of this and a benefit is that individuals around the world can be in touch with each other instantaneously 24/7. Furthermore, the writing that they do and the troubleshooting that goes on, solidifies the concepts and theories that are being bandied around. After all, we retain 95% of what we teach. We are teaching when we blog or assist someone with a technological concern - The things being blogged about are no longer just technological in nature; the sky’s the limit on what people want to discuss these days. Think of all the experts there are out there....   The Network is the Learning - Siemens believes that the networks that we are part of provide us with the knowledge we seek - They enable us to stay current with the information that we require - It is assumed therefore, that the group has the most up to date information – i.e. the more minds involved, the greater the knowledge base - We are obligated to stay current and up to date in our fields of study or occupations esp. in the teaching profession; if we don’t seek the most up to date information, we will become obsolete Reflections on Siemens talk for TEDxNYED -this raises many interesting points about the way in which education on the whole is changing as a result of connectivism and the social networking of Web 2.0 -Siemens makes a good point about the fact that we need to teach children how to relate properly with each other in this environment -schools cannot “lock away” the computers or refuse to acknowledge the social network sites; we have a responsibility to teach students what they are and how to use them to improve their knowledge base -what he doesn’t go into is how to appropriately teach this new kind of communication; using networking sites to improve knowledge is a huge can of worms. I know this because of the field study I did using discussion boards to discuss current events -it’s great to say that students need to learn how to communicate with one another in order to be better citizens of the world, but they need to be taught how to appropriately communicate as well -it really is baby steps; I think this needs to happen from the start in Kindergarten -there is a huge knowledge base out there called the internet, but knowing how to use it and gleaning the best information for their purposes is the tricky part