1. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies Connectivism Learning conceptualized through the lens of todays world George Siemens

2. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies Context Context-free Tree

3. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies My argument Exponentially developing knowledge and complexification of society requires non- linear models of learning (process) and knowing (state). We cannot sustain ourselves as learning/knowing beings in the current climate with our current approaches. Networked (social, technological) approaches scale in line with changes, but require a redesign of how we teach, learn (and see learning), and come to know.

4. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies Big changes change big institutions

5. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies What are knowledge trends? Intuitive Growth Fluidity Impact on authority Impact on certainty Technology

6. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies Fluid knowledge Product to process Creation, dissemination, distribution, end-user relationship

7. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies Architecture of participation powered by network effects

8. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies Knowledge Knowledge has changed (in quantity, if not core nature) Our reaction on institutional level has not We still see it primarily as a product Learning, knowing, cognition – distributed (Hutchins)

9. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies Abundance creates problems for existing approaches Inability to process – bounded rationality Require new skills Require new educational models

10. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies If you have three pet dogs, give them names. If you have 10,000 head of cattle, don't bother. David Gelernter

11. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies Where can we scale? Human capacity – yes, but bounded Technology capacity – augmentation - primitive Procedural capacity - Network intelligence

12. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies Hasnt it always been this way? Think of it two-fold: –Body – our understanding increases in what is there (understanding ourselves) –Technology – we create what isnt (extending ourselves)

13. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies Learning in relationship to knowledge and mind Distributed – –Hutchins – Not in skull –Spivey et. al. – not always inside brain –Bereiter – knowing outside the mind Externalization – Wittgenstein, Vygotsky Socialization – Papert, Piaget, Bruner, Bandura Ethical/moral obligations…structures – Freire, Illich, Papert, Dewey

14. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies What is a connection Awareness with potential for relationship

15. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies Connections of a certain type are valuable: Relevance Of value for information sharing Dense connections reduce adaptability (Beinhocker) making connections that generate insight (Cross, Laseter)

16. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies Roads no longer merely lead to places; they are places John Brinckerhoff Jackson

17. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies The power of networks…of doubling

18. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies Upgrading our relationship to information/knowledge From knowing about - to knowing where/who - to sensemaking/understanding Cognition – grunt level work handled by technology –Tag maps/clouds –Social bookmarking trends –We move to meaning making more rapidly

19. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies

20. Connectivism What is it?

21. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies A certain type of knowledge… Rapidly changing Complex Connected Global Social Technologically mediated

22. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies

23. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies But what does this look like practically? Learning is network formation Network Administrator Atelier Learning (JSB) Open tools – first generation – we are only now seeing what is possible

24. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies Future Combat Systems

25. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies Connected specialization

26. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies Undiscovered public knowledge When connections are weak…not more research, but better connections Undiscovered public knowledge (Don Swanson) – systems of information that are similar but distinct or not normally connected

27. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies Blog space as canary Blogs have dealt with information abundance for years. How do we cope? –Networks of trusted sources –Diversity –Openness –Aggregators

28. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies What skills do our learners need today? Pattern recognition Network formation and evaluation Critical/creative thinking Acceptance of uncertainty/ambiguity Contextualizing

29. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies To the neuroscientist, learning is a whole-person/whole-brain activity what confounds received organizations Theodore Marchese

30. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies Balance Formal and informal Think holistically: –Network (the history of ideas is a network of connections) – structures of openness –Ecologies – spaces of diversity Context drives approach

31. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies The role of technology Technology expresses a view…it isnt neutral Augments, enhances, extends cognition –Memory knowing about is external

32. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies The structure of the device becomes the structure of the knowledge James Bosco Book, courses Internet: network…connective pathways

33. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies All the knowledge is in the connections David Rumelhart

34. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies Concerns Adaptivity – adjust ourselves as our environment and technology adjusts –What is the balance between reacting to and influencing the space? Critical views…not utopia

35. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies Where is the connection formed? During repeated use? During reflection/rest? The rest principle states that connections within a pathway of neurons become stronger only if the neurons rest after firing and that the connections will get weaker if the neurons are fired repeatedly without rest.

36. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies What are the implications of this for our learning? Answer in Moodle forums…

37. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies Everything is an experiment Everyone is a creator

38. Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies www.elearnspace.org www.connectivism.ca www.knowingknowledge.com http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/wordpress

39. Get a Free Elluminate vRoom Completely free, fully functional, cross platform, hosted web conferencing for up to 3 participants Visit http://www.elluminate.com/vroom