Michael Wolfindale's EDC lifestream
Education and Digital Cultures 2020 lifestream-blog
‘Connectivism presents a model of learning that acknowledges the tectonic shifts in society where learning is no longer an internal, individualistic activity. How people work and function is altered when new tools are utilized. The field of education has been slow to recognize both the impact of new learning tools and the environmental changes in what it means to learn. Connectivism provides insight into learning skills and tasks needed for learners to flourish in a digital era.’
‘At its heart, connectivism is the thesis that knowledge is distributed across a network of connections, and therefore that learning consists of the ability to construct and traverse those networks.’ (Downes 2007)
The lifestream has become somewhat of a self-study in non-participation during Week 7 as I worked on researching and composing my micro-ethnography on Stephen Downes’s e-Learning 3.0 cMOOc.
Very relevant read while working on my micro-ethnography of ds106, particularly around the challenges and ethical issues surrounding research of connectivist-style MOOCs!
Over the past five years, the emergence of interactive social media has influenced the development of learning environments. Learning management systems have come to maturity, but because they are controlled by educational institutions and are subsequently used to support institutional learning, have been seen by learning technologists as not capturing the spirit and possibilities that new media have to offer for learning. Academics and researchers are currently investigating a different learning environment, more open and networked, while the underpinning learning theory is moving from social constructivism towards connectivism. Research in open learning environments is only in its infancy and researchers have only started to become interested in massive open online courses (MOOCs) as a topic of investigation. Recent research and development efforts have focused on generating technologies that might facilitate learning within a self-directed information and communication stream. In this paper, the authors report on an exploratory case study of PLENK, a connectivist-style MOOC, and highlight some of the challenges in the research and analysis process, especially as significant amounts of both quantitative and qualitative data were involved. Important findings related to activity levels and important dimensions of self-directed learning in an open learning environment are presented.
Imagine the challenge of being immersed in a dynamic learning network where you play brinkmanship with being overwhelmed by a plethora of information, comments, and conversations on a topic of intense interest to you. Through adept facilitation, the comments and encouragement of fellow participants, and your own perseverance, you develop a network of personal connections which serve as metaphorical flying buttresses creating enough stability that you are able to learn in a new, yet profoundly meaningful way – the connectivist massive open online course (cMOOC) way. Through the lens of autoethnography, five seasoned educators collaboratively reflect on their motivation for participating in their initial cMOOC. They analyze their lived experience, what they found most engaging, and most importantly, they grapple with why cMOOC communities often endure past official end-dates. This article attempts to provide insight into the thrill and depth of learning and connection possible through participation in cMOOCs.
If Illich seemed radical when he was asking his contemporaries to rethink the way they were facilitating learning, Siemens and Downes are a lot more radical in that they ask us to reconsider the very notion of knowledge.