Summary: The Ideas of Connectivism
From What is the Unique Idea in Connectivism? “What is new in constructivism, and please provide commentary if you disagree, is that it combined existing ideas into a framework that resonated with the needs and trends of the current era” and what is unique in connectivism is “the particular combination and integration of ideas that reflect the broader societal and information-based trends”. In this blog article, George Siemens presents some of the theoretical foundations of connectivism and a list of what is unique about his approach.
Some of the foundations include the ideas that all tools (technology) carry with them an ideology (a point I’ve carried in my work on the pedagogy of course management systems), learning takes place in a context and in a social way, cognition may be distributed rather than focused, technologies can change our conception of humanity, and networks exist everywhere. The theoretical foundations range from Wittgenstein and Marshall McLuhan to a set of noted contemporary scholars.
“Connectivism is the application of network principles to define both knowledge and the process of learning. ” These networks are not just computer-based, but exist in the mind itself, in society, and in individual cognitive frameworks. The metaphor of neural network-building in the brain can provide one model, but here it’s placed in the context of social interaction and a post-modern technological world of shared concepts and opinions.
