Storytime: Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major traveled between my left and right ear as if the 1st chair violinist was leading my consciousness to this learning theory discovery. After a deep inhale of the nearby brewing espresso, I logged into the wi-fi, launched Chrome, and Googled [top five educational learning theories]. The Concerto swelled in my earbuds. What the what is going on here? I began reading the familiar list: Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism, and Humanism. Just as the soloist began her cadenza I reached the fifth, and most unfamiliar theory: Connectivism. What is connectivism?
As a Master Teacher with three degrees, I’ve studied and applied, learning theories all of my life. I keep up with the trends and follow the thought leaders. How did I miss this? Then, it hit me! I have been so busy making things that I missed the rise of Connectivism. My coffee-flavored quest yielded treasure.
Connectivism Defined
Connectivism is a theory of learning in a digital age that emphasizes the role of the social and cultural context in how and where learning occurs. Learning does not simply happen within an individual, but within and across the networks. (Wikipedia).
In 2004, Dr. George Siemens wrote a seminal article: Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age.
Behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism are the three broad learning theories most often utilized in the creation of instructional environments. These theories, however, were developed in a time when learning was not impacted through technology. Over the last twenty years, technology has reorganized how we live, how we communicate, and how we learn.
We have never been more globally connected to one another than we are at this moment in time. As a result, knowledge is distributed over a network of people. Learning takes place within the group and then the individual makes the connections in order to learn new things.
Eight principles of connectivism:
- Learning and knowledge rest in diversity of opinions.
- Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources.
- Learning may reside in non-human appliances.
- Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known.
- Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.
- Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.
- Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities.
- Decision-making is itself a learning process. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision.
Yes! It’s a real learning theory!
After reading the article top to bottom, I browsed the internet for the opinions of others. I was personifying Siemens’ theory.
- I was trying to learn more about the topic by seeking the opinions of others (Principle 1).
- Watching videos and reading articles with comments, I aimed to learn about the validity of the theory (Principle 2 & 3).
- My initial quest for currency and capacity to know more is what drove me to research learning theory in the first place (Principle 4 & 7).
- The very act of writing this blog post to connect with business thought leaders (Principle 5).
- Finally, I realized that the right answer (Top 5 Learning Theories) had changed to a wrong answer (to me) due to alterations in the information climate (Principle 8).
It seems legit to me. There are a few critics out there that want to argue that connectivism isn’t a theory at all. I couldn’t find merit in any of their arguments. I’ll put the links below in case you’d like to explore.
Join my feedback loop
“I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better.”
Elon Musk
What do you think? Is Connectivism a real learning theory or is it a well-written paper that combines old ones?
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