Re: Connectivism Learning Theory

As pointed out by Siemens (2004), in most learning theories, learning occurs inside a person but they fail to illustrate how learning occurs within organization and outside of people. In connectivism, learning is focused on connecting specialized information sets, and the connections enable us to explore are more important than our current state of knowing. The ability to evaluate, select, and distinguish new information is vital. It is the learning theory in the digital age, where knowledge doesn't have to be transferred from the educator to the learner directly, however, distributed across the web. It is the people's engagement with learning that constitutes the learning process (Kop, 2011). 

Graphic from http://www.vegas-times.com/

Kop (2001) also highlighted three challenges for connectivist learning 

1) The need for critical literacies and the power relations on the network

2) The level of learner autonomy

3) The level of presence

Some thoughts of "What impact does this theory have on developing classroom material?"

A big portion of learning nowadays does not occur in traditional classroom. It is more important for students to know where the knowledge can be found, and how to critically internalize them. It is about building their own network, linking to previous knowledge set, and learning in the community. It would be best applied in the classroom through group work and class discussion (or online forum for online courses). The teacher would be more a facilitator instead of lecturer while the students will be acquiring knowledge and critically determining the meanings of them. We should also be more aware of the importance of social networks in learning as a connectivist approach. Even for traditional classroom, we can establish an online community where students can interact asynchronously and synchronously (Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, ooVoo, Skype etc.) The focus is not the consensus regarding a particular topic but to create ongoing dialogue, increase social presence, and encourage sharing, and continuing self-directed learning. We may also include online literature researching skill into the curriculum, helping students to find reliable information on the web.

Source:

Siemens, 2004 http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm

Rita Kop, The challenges to connectivist learning on open online networks: learning experiences during a massive open online course, The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/882, 2011