Connectivism—The Changing Nature of Knowledge

     

      With the advance of technology, knowledge shift and grow within seconds which drives learners nowadays to change their way of learning. I think that a learner islike an ant which is a social insect. They cannot live alone just as the learners cannot learn and acquire knowledge outside the social network. The learning happens via constant sharing and receiving. Different ants have different jobs just as learners decide what kind of information to access according to their different interest and pursuits.

      According to George Siemens, connectivism believes “learning and knowledge rests in the diversity of opinions, and learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources.” Therefore, it is important for us to enable learners to select the right information under the right context so that the learners can acquire the knowledge. Besides, he also contends that “the capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known.”(Siemens, 2005) Hence, we should equip learners the ability to form connection between related fields, ideas and concepts, from which they gain more assesses to the sources of knowledge. Furthermore, decision making ability is equally essential. To know how to make good choice for their intake of information, learners know how to reap more by investing less effort.

      According to the video THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON LEARNING, the speaker addressed that “social software such as blogs, flickers and wikis are developed in order to make people exchange information quickly and learn from each other.” It is the social needs that enable people to be connected them share and learn from each other. Via these social networks, people take it as a tool to self grow information and knowledge.

      I consider connectivism is an important concept for education. Under the context, we, as educators, are responsible for equipping students the ability to accommodate into these social software so that they process an effective tool to absorb information and learn from others. On the other hand, even some of our students are more advanced them us in using social software. Therefore, there would be no excuse for not using technology to enhance students’ learning.

Reference: Connectivism:A Learning Theory for the Digital Age by George Siemens