Connectivism: A vision for education

George Siemens24th Annual Conference on Distance

Teaching & LearningMadison, Wisconsin

August 7, 2008

The major responsibility of education is to arm every single person for the vital combat for lucidity.

Edgar Morin

But how do we find lucidity?

What has happened to information and our interactions with others?

An exabyte? How Big?

Five exabytes of information is equivalent in size to the information contained in 37,000 new libraries the size of the Library of Congress book collections.

UC Berkeley

In 2007 the digital universe equalled 281bn gigabytes of data, or about 45gb for every person on Earth

International Data Corporation

It took two centuries to fill the shelves of the Library of Congress with more than 57 million manuscripts, 29 million books and periodicals, 12 million photographs, and more. Now, the world generates an equivalent amount of digital information nearly 100 times each day.

Internet Innovation Alliance

Narrative of coherence

Meaning

The knowledge is in the connectionsRumelhart

Sensemaking

Existing tools and processes for managing information and complexity have hit their scale limit

Information growth

We’re always missing something

Partial knowing (new reality)

“Tectonic shift that will transform the map of higher education worldwide—the growth of universities in the developing world”

Daniel, Kanwar, Uvalic-Trumbic (2006)

Diversity/breadth

Complexity

Fragmentation

Obvious traditional response

Need experts for validation

But…

Fragmentation requires re-creation

Fragmentation challenges coherence

Lack of coherence

disrupts lucidity

Freedom of creation=abundance

ABUNDANCE=NOISE

…and complexification

Structural inefficiencies of schools ≠

“vital combat for lucidity”

It’s no longer about changing what our curriculum is.

It’s about changing how we do curriculum in the first place

How can we foster coherence in How can we foster coherence in a world of hyper-a world of hyper-fragmentation?fragmentation?

Something is happening.

But is it sufficient to warrant a reconsideration of learning theory?

(Kerr, 2007)

Blogs

Wikis

OERs

Ooh…shiny object

Mobile

Facebook

Second Life Podcasts

Del.icio.us

Connectivism

Networked Learning

What?

Application of network principles to learning…

where knowledge exists in connections and learning is the act of building a network (multiple levels) and navigating the network

How is this unique??

A unity of learning and knowledge

Abundance

Technology

Coherence. Understanding. Sensemaking. Meaning

What do we mean when we say “networked learning”?

1. Neural

Connectionism & AI Rumelhart & McClelland (1986)

Neuroscience – rapidly emerging research

Study of cerebral cortex, reveals:

““small-world” attributes, characterized by the presence of abundant clustering of connections combined with short average distances between neuronal elements”

Sporns & Zwi (2004)

Network theory (such as small worlds) “new applications in the field of neuroscience”

Stam & Reijneveld (2007)

2. Conceptual

Physics researchAusubel: meaningful learningNovak & Cañas (2006)

Levels of understanding - Bereiter

Connections create meaning

Do network properties exist at conceptual level?

Visualization

Highlighting relationships/connections

Of networksOf activity

Of interactionOf content/information

How do we make sense, conceptually?

Connectively/collectively

Networks serve a filtering role

Pattern recognition

Klein(1998)Bereiter (2002)

3. External and Social

How we are connected to others and to information

Watts (2003), Wellman (2001), Barabási (2003), Haythornthwaite & Gruzd (2007), Tim Berners-Lee, Granovetter (1973)

But explain, how does learning occur?

Only connect

E.M. Forser, 1991

Depth and diversity of connections determines understanding

Frequency of exposure

Integration with existing ideas/concepts

Strong and Weak Ties

Determining understandingDetermining understanding

What becomes of authority?

How is information disseminated?

Faustian bargain, anyone?

Nomic

Self-regulation

Wayfinding(Darken 1996)

Bigger shift that that from a Ptolmeic to Copernican view of the solar system…Self-organization is the way the relevant sciences are heading.

Carl Bereiter (2002)

Educator’s obligation

Foster a system with greatest ease for connections to occur

Validation of quality of connection

Foster learner skill and desire to pursue sensemaking

Urgent Skills for Educators

Develop a framework (network) for managing information and interaction

And a method for critical reflection and integration

New roles for educators

Curator

Concierge

Atelier

Network administrator

Who is modeling behaviour and values with technology for learners?

Participatory Pedagogies(Collis & Moonen, 2008)

(Askins, 2008)(Harvard Law School, 2008)

Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family…On it’s foundations rest the cornerstones of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development

Kofi Annan

Threats to university

Borderless educationPrivate for-profitCorporate universities

Peter Scott, 2002

Response: Triple-helix Etzkowitz & Leydesdorff, 1999

In any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the stakes at issue—that is why academic politics are so bitter

Sayre’s Law

Inertia - systemic

Slow adoption of innovation Murray 2008

Christensen 2008

Inertia - systemic

“The call for a new pedagogy to accompany new instructional technologies, however, has largely remained unanswered”

Davidovitch, 2007

What could, should, school look like?

Finding a new value-basis

Historically

Content

Interaction

Accreditation

Future: framework of coherence

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Delicious:http://delicious.com/gsiemens/madison08

Personalbrain:http://elearnspace.org/media/Madison/index.html

MOOC: Massive Open Online Course

Connectivism Online Coursewith Stephen Downes

http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/connectivism/

Websites and Newsletters

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