Connectivism: Learning Conceptualized
Through the Lens of Today's World

By George Siemens

Knowledge and learning are forefront in the progress and advancement of humanity. At no other time in history have we stood before as rich a panorama of opportunity as we do today. Our access to information, knowledge, global conversation, research, and the experiences of generations past provide a firm foundation on which to build the society of tomorrow. Yet openness, abundance, and access raise new concerns. The ability to cope with today's knowledge deluge, to engage learners in co-creation of content, and to enlarge classroom walls to include diverse perspectives requires a new conception of learning. Theories of cognition and learning that have served well in the past seem frail, ineffective, and out of touch with the reality of learners and the new context and characteristics of knowledge today.

Connective Teaching: How the Read/Write Web Challenges Traditional Practice

By Will Richardson

In the traditional information delivery model of instruction, teachers were seen primarily as content experts who were charged with making sure their students "learned" a certain set of knowledge. This model was built inherently on the idea that knowledge and information were scarce and that if students weren't exposed to it in school they would be unlikely to learn it elsewhere. Today, however, knowledge and information are abundant and fast changing. In this environment, the emphasis of our teaching must shift away from content to instead focus on helping students build their own networks of trusted sources through which they can find and evaluate relevant content on their own. But what does this shift mean for our own personal and professional practice? Can we guide our students to be independent, lifelong, connected learners without first building our own communities and trusted networks for learning? And how can we best model for our students the effective and ethical use of a connected world in our own lives? This presentation examines some of the ways in which expectations for professional practice are changing to reflect this new learning environment and looks at the challenges to implementing those changes.

Balancing Agility and Stability in Higher Education

By Diana Oblinger

Information technology has catalyzed the creation of new forms of communication, self-expression, and collaboration. Social networking, podcasting, and videoblogging exemplify a do-it-yourself culture where peer-to-peer, multi-modal communication challenges traditional text-based, authoritative channels. The co-creation of material and the emergence of amateurs as authorities, as epitomized by wikipedia, signal a cultural shift among many of today’s learners. And, with the Web as learners’ information universe—not the library—no learner is ever far from abundant information. In a rapidly changing environment, how well is education keeping pace with learner expectations, IT capabilities, learning principles, and cultural shifts? How much agility—or stability—is required?

A Challenge To Connectivism

By Bill Kerr

"The skin is not all that important as a boundary" BF Skinner

The notorious Skinner got that one right. The boundary issue is crucial. In considering the learning process we need to ask: What happens inside our body / brain, what happens outside, in the external environment, and how are the inside and the outside connected? What is the mind, where is it and how does it work? These are core theoretical questions about learning with immense practical significance. The necessary process of formulating a new learning theory ought to incorporate and struggle with a modern synthesis of philosophy, cognitive science (including artifical intelligence research) and the history of learning theory. My critique of George Siemen's Connectivism suggests that a better job could have been done.

The Recognition Factor

By Stephen Downes

Connective knowledge is based on pattern recognition of emergent phenomena in networks. In order for a pattern to have any meaning, therefore, it must be recognized. This means that knowledge formation in a connective environment is a combination of two elements: the perception, which is the pattern to be recognized, and the perceiver, who does the recognizing. Knowledge, therefore, is not uniquely inherent in a network, but exists only insofar as it is recognized to exist. This talk will explore this argument and its implications on a theory of connective knowledge.

Research and Net Pedagogies

By Terry Anderson

The development of any new pedagogical theory or practice depends upon high quality and systematic research to validate the theory and the resulting intervention's result and efficacy. Traditionally, education has imported medical and science models of quantitative study and social science and humanity tools such as survey's and qualitative investigation to substantiate and develop new pedagogy. However, there is increasing evidence that the context of real education and learning is too complex, idiosyncratic and culturally bound to benefit from the types of research used in other disciplines. Recently "design-based research" a methodology devised by and for educators has been celebrated as an effective way to study and develop new pedagogy. This presentation overviews design-based research theory and methodology, provides examples and overviews the critique of other research methodologies.