Connectivism

This morning while exploring edupunk on Joe Bustillos syllabus, an interesting theory was presented by Stephen Downes  and George Siemens. They arrive at their analysis after studying the shortcomings of behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism. (Siemens, 2004, ¶ 23) Siemens paper on connectivism has some great quotes for education like “Connectivism is the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organization theories. Learning is a process that occurs within nebulous environments of shifting core elements – not entirely under the control of the individual.”

The theory takes into account the changes in the learning environment since pre-technology in education.  Here is a theory that at its root realizes what is learned is not completely under the control of the learner. So if behaviorism attempts to pour information where it wills how do we measure what comes out when regardless how hard our students may try- what comes out is different than what the behaviorist poured in? After all, if it is connected to what goes on at home, say the priority of reading each night, how can the outcome be predicted much less fairly assessed by what goes on during the school day? Yet we try and we punish our reading teachers for the connections being made in the student’s mind elsewhere.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

3 Comments

RR

That's one up for the teachers, thanks Libby for that insightful comment about us reading teachers!

Tuesday, July 7, 2009 - 05:15 PM

RR

So, this would mean that I absolutely positively, well okay I take a little bit of credit, that I can't control how much a student learns because of his/her environment?This goes back to age old debates: are we mere products of our environment or does volition have the ultimate say so how we live our lives?

There are plenty of situations that arise during the course of a school day, yet alone , life in general. On one side I agree that learning is not completely up to the learner and on another I could argue that it is, but you raise a good point no matter what.

For most who do not learn or have yet to learn how to adequately seek out information, interpret it, and use or reconfigure it into some important aspect in life, then their environment affects them. More so, than the students who have learned this acquired skill.

The dynamics of the topic is ongoing, so many possibilities and outcomes.Volition is the ultimate factor after ones environment has been contained, assessed, and dealt with I believe.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009 - 05:46 PM

RR

Here's a story about a girl who didn't let the pandemonium of life choose the outcome of her learning.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-harvard20-2009jun20,0,1882109.story" target="_blank">Khadijah Williams

 Feel free to condense my response into one! Multiple entries reserved for great bloggers! :)

Tuesday, July 7, 2009 - 05:52 PM