Connectivism

On being connected: George Siemen’s presentation today.

I am so fortunate that today my planning period allowed me to attend George Siemen’s Connectivism online conference where 197 people from around the world listened and chatted through George’s presentation about his connectivism theories and how they relate to education.

I am one of the context filters for K12 education. I am reflecting on the moodle and on my blog here on the discussions and presentation today. Here are my primary thoughts from my notes on his presentation.

George gave an overview of the connectivist theory. What I got out of the discussion was many other items of discussion:

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Connectivism: A Learning Theory

Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age - instructor.aviation.ca

Connectivism

Connectivism is the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organization theories. Learning is a process that occurs within nebulous environments of shifting core elements – not entirely under the control of the individual. Learning (defined as actionable knowledge) can reside outside of ourselves (within an organization or a database), is focused on connecting specialized information sets, and the connections that enable us to learn more are more important than our current state of knowing.

Connectivism is driven by the understanding that decisions are based on rapidly altering foundations. New information is continually being acquired. The ability to draw distinctions between important and unimportant information is vital. The ability to recognize when new information alters the landscape based on decisions made yesterday is also critical.

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This class fits in your pocket

Star-Telegram | 02/12/2007 | This class fits in your pocket

By JOHN AUSTIN
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
Kristine Ford, 19, monitors the activity in the University of Texas at Arlington's engineering department's video production studio, which produces videos of graduate classes for distribution via podcast.
STAR-TELEGRAM/DARRELL BYERS
Kristine Ford, 19, monitors the activity in the University of Texas at Arlington's engineering department's video production studio, which produces videos of graduate classes for distribution via podcast.
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Distance learning has been around for decades, but thanks to the iPod and other digital music players, higher education is becoming as portable as a pop song.

Blended Learning

Blended Learning: Education Innovation Productivity: Campus Technology

By Karen Vignare
Director, MSU Global Ventures
Michigan State University



Blended learning is the "new" buzz in higher education. Many educational researchers have discovered that online learning environments are particularly useful for communications and collaboration. When you add in management and administrative tools available in most course management systems today online learning environments are fairly robust. But giving up the classroom seems a little drastic and premature. The result is using both environments-online and face-to-face-in a planned and pedagogically opportunistic way. Yet, the research on and about blended learning is less convincing than online asynchronous education. Still, many of us almost instinctively think blended learning will be good for higher education. Why? Let's start with some basics.

Podblasting

Podblasting: Campus Technology

It was 1978 when the remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers hit the big screen, and after shuddering through hours of Hollywood-style horror, I had nightmares about waking up in a pod as a creature with no soul. Some campus podcasting detractors might say not much has changed since then.

In January, the University of Cincinnati equipped seven instructors with podcast-armbands, arming them to teach-and-record, and enabling students to jump online and download to their MP3 players the day’s lecture, student presentations, and class interactions. It’s almost as good as being there. And that, in essence, is the basis of the argument against widespread use of classroom or lecture hall podcasting.

Professsors and iPods

SPECIAL DOUBLE FEATURE! Academic MP3s Is It iTime Yet?: Campus Technology

By Mikael Blaisdell

Are campus educators and administrators prepared to make full use of the iPod’s educational potential? Our intrepid reporter gets the inside story from faculty, students, and administrators at three schools on the vanguard.

Sound Capture in Higher Ed Classess

Classroom Capture: Lecture Recording System Draws Devotees at Temple: Campus Technology

By Linda L. Briggs

TUCAPTURE's on the fly archiving of audio and video integrates with Apreso, Blackboard. Next up: handwriting capture.

If lectures are recorded during class and then offered online, will attendance drop as students attend class virtually instead of in person? That's still a big question in higher education, as it becomes more and more common to augment in class courses with an online component.

Social Software

Social Software Social Revolution: Campus Technology

At Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, CA, social software efforts revolve around a different medium: that of podcasting. Here, offerings break down into two flavors—push and pull. Podcasts of the push variety are those which professors send out to students as part of the regular learning process. Those that pull are required of students, in lieu of or in addition to traditional homework assignments.