How has your network changed the way you learned?
My learning has changed greatly in just the past couple of years. When I started my master's degree with Walden, my whole idea of learning was completely changed. To start with I never imagined I could go to graduate school entirely online and I was very unsure if I had the background knowledge in technology to succeed in this virtual environment. But I quickly adapted and began learning through collaboration using wikis, skype, blogs, and discussion boards. I have recently been able to communicate and learn through my social network, facebook, with some of my colleagues. These colleagues and I discuss issues that we currently face as educators.
Which digital tools best facilitate learning for you?
I believe pod casts, wikis, and blogs help facilitate learning for me the best. I am a visual learner and the pod casts help me gain a better understanding of the content than reading a book ever would. I also enjoy and benefit greatly from the collaboration portion of my distance learning courses. It is interesting to hear different viewpoints about topics and the way other states education systems differ from mine.
How do you learn new knowledge when you have questions?
I google everything!! Whenever I am unsure about anything I grab my phone and google it!
Hello Rachel,
ReplyDeleteOur network connections might have impacted the type of information were able to gather over the years, but I am not so sure that they had actually changed the way we learned as human beings. Like you, before I started by master’s degree I lacked confidence regarding going to graduate school online. I was also unsure if I had the background knowledge in technology to succeed in this virtual environment. Fortunately, without thinking, I had formed a strong network that gave me access to pertinent information through people and other digitized technologies. In other words, our connections do facilitate our learning in respect to how much and what type of information we are able to assemble, however that does not mean our network connections changed how we build and gain knowledge as individuals.
Not that I am a skeptic, but I am not fully convinced that connectivism should be called a new learning theory. One of the problem that I have with it, is that Siemens emphasized that the role of educators have changed, but what about the role of learners? Learners today have to be more responsible for their own learning. Constructivists see this as the need for self-regulation. Moreover, Siemens had based most of his ideas off the existing learning theories wherein sometimes in areas where those theories might have fallen short. For example, Siemens had adopted constructivist theorists’ idea that knowledge is constructed by learners as they attempt to make sense of their experiences (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011). However, sometimes collaboration in groups does not always bear tangible results, since not all individuals would display responsible behavior.
Also, in classrooms, students’ “ownership in learning” as one of the conditions for learning does not always workout for the best. When given options, learners at times would choose the quickest route through the instruction, whether or not that route best meets their learning needs (Driscoll, 2005, p. 399). For that reason, I am careful about the people that I choose to be involved in my personal network as I gather information to make sense of the world. Not that I will only choose those who are always in agreement with me. Instead, I will choose those who constructively add to my network of information.
References
Driscoll, M. P. (2005). Psychology of learning for instruction (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
Siemens, G. (2006), Connectivism Learning Theory [Video file]. Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer) Baltimore: Author