Personal Learning Networks (Credit: Google images)
We’ve learned a lot so far. Let’s take a look back, shall we?
In Week 1, we defined Connectivism. For me, it’s a way of staying current, up to date, in my field, English Language Teaching. For my students, it’s a way to collaborate and engage themselves in their own learning. The definition: Connectivism is a new theory of learning for a digital age. All the teachers of English as a Foreign Language in my PLN are connectivists, like me. Connectivism defines us.
In Week 2, we looked at Patterns of Connectivity. Guest speaker Martin Weller shared an interesting new concept with us. Digital scholarship. He gave us insights into what it is, where and how it’s occurring, and he interacted with me in a discussion of whether or not Einstein was a scholar.
I contended that the best judge of scholarship was oneself, because the “vox populi” is often wrong in their judgements about people.
Martin gently pointed out that my reading of Einstein was a misreading, because, eventually, Einstein became one of the most respected, if not, the most respected scholar of his day.
I accepted Martin’s views in that respect, yet clung to the idea that Einstein’s perseverance was the key to his success.
In the face of rejection in his early years by professors who would not even give him a recommendation to get a decent job, Einstein persevered, though working as a lowly patent clerk.
Can you imagine someone, anyone, not giving Einstein a recommendation? 🙂 It really happened…
In Week 3, we looked at connective knowledge. The overview for Week 3 sums up things quite nicely:
“In knowledge that could be described as connective, a property of one entity must lead to or become a property of another entity in order for them to be considered connected; the knowledge that results from such connections is connective knowledge. Connective knowledge requires an interaction. More to the point, connective knowledge is knowledge of the connection.”
In Week 4, we asked the question: What makes connectivism unique? How does it compare with constructivism? Does connectivism exclude constructivism or embrace constructivism? Does connectivism go forward rejecting the past? Is this evolution or a revolution? Along these lines I went into Week 4.
Enter Neil Selwyn, AKA “Socrates”. You see, that’s the nickname I gave Neil after his live Elluminate session with us. Why Socrates?
What would you think of a man who titled his session: “Social media and education: reasons to be fearful?”, and in the opening of the presentation says, “I really didn’t mean it that way”? 🙂 To top things off, he finished with a classic: “All I know, is that I know nothing at all”.
Neil was brilliantly socratic, causing myself and others to revisit and rethink the things that we had come to feel absolutely certain about.
You see, when one is absolutely certain about our facts, our “Truths”, we become blind to the facts and truths of the other.
The pages of history are strewn with example after example of what one man is capable of doing to another man when we are unwilling to compromise our truths…
Week 5 brought us a lively discussion about Groups and Networks. Stephen Downes capably and excellently took us through the foundations and fundamentals of what makes a group a group, and what makes a network a network, complete with examples, before leaving us with some powerful explanatory visuals to help us compare and contrast the two, to get our own understandings of these two important concepts.
In my case, for example, the ten years I spent in the US military would clearly place that organization into a group, as we defined it yesterday. The group is hierarchical, with fast propagation, and thus easily affected, for better or worse, by a change of state. Being highly centralised, it is also easily susceptible to negative events, if the centrality of the organization is adversely affected in some way.
That brings us to Week 6, where we will be discussing the PLN and the PLE.
Ladies and gentlemen, my friends and fellow teachers of English as a Foreign Language, I would like to encourage all of you to participate this week. Week 6 serves as a refresher for many of you, for others it serves as an eyeopener. No one will walk away from Week 6 poorer, no, our collective richness will be enhanced, for the better, after we invest our time in Week 6.
This course, Connectivism and connected Knowledge 2011, #CCK11, is entirely free. Let me repeat that: Free.
No cost, no charge, nothing, nada, gratis.
It’s a MOOC, a Massive-Open-Online-Course. This course has a syllabus, but it’s only a starting point. You take away from this course what you put into it. There are no tests, no essays, no requirements put on you. You are free to learn as much as you want, or as little as you want.
This is all about you.
In my humble opinion, the quality of your participation in your own Personal Learning Networks, using the PLE, the personal learning environments at your disposal, will be positively affected by your investment in participating in this week’s topic.
Well, there’s my challenge to you. Participate in order to enhance your contribution to your PLN. That’s a good thing, right? I share, you share, we share, you win, I win, we win.
Improve your ability to make a contribution to your PLN. Participate in Week 6, #CCK11. Here’s the link where you can find out about the course:
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