Farmers used to sit on their tractors and plough for days. Now tractors do plough on their own, because some farmers invented an automated system. My neighbor is a farmer and he does milk 200 cows on his own. He has a computerized milking and feeding system.
Lots of jobs can be done better by machines and cheaper than by humans.(thanks Vanessa)
What should our children learn and what shall we teach them? Imagine a world of automated machines for almost every task, what should humans do in that world?
Maybe we do need humans to make these machines, to invent the machines and to replace them or repair?
We would need people to care for other people. But some surgery is done best by machines.
Kind of science fiction coming true?
Or as Dave Cormier writes “I want us to be passing on the ability to choose. The will to understand. The work ethic required to engage at something for long enough to understand it. The sense of responsibility to believe that you should do that for yourself. I don’t care about the content or the rules associated with it… those we can find.”?
Tag Archives: connectivism
Identity and #change11
What is the difference between identity, ID, self, ego, me, personality? Do these words connect to the same ’thing’?
Does identity change when you change role? A role or a social role (also spelt rôle) as a set of connected behaviors, rights and obligations as conceptualized by actors in a social situation.
Identity is an item in psycho-therapy, fear of loss of identity or fear of disapproval are strong forces in a human mind. Identity is dependence because the other people must recognize and acknowledge my identity.
Identity as a network. No identity without other people, and things. Part of your identity is made by the connections in your network. Your identity is your parents, your friends, your place of birth your university, your colleagues. And the phone you use, the car, the house, your dog, your clothes.
Identity is difference, how to be different in this world with so many people? Leaving marks on the network, connecting in a personal style. The rhizome of your connections is part of your identity. Identity as a way of living, a style of life, a typical way of expressing. Branding is a special way of being different. Are social status and identity connected? Identity is a process of a growing rhizome, in a complex rhizome you could find your singular identity. The more complex the more a different identity.
Leaving marks is part of the making of an identity. (footprint, fingerprint, printed papers) These marks are printed on a substrate. In what way is the substrate part of your identity? What blogs are you commenting, what does your Facebook look like? Reading footprints is subjective, as Pooh and Piglet show when they are walking in the snow. So who am I? You could read a part of my online identity on the marks I left on the internet.
In what way does a text help to make an identity? In what way is your work/text hiding your identity?
Your identity is part of your personality. Is Identity a rhizome of different selfs? Languge selfs, branded, cultural selfs? Identity is it your public self? Is my private secret unconscious self part of my identity? Culturally, these practices by which we make our digital identities have become part of our embodied lives and of an enmeshed concept of ourselves.
Your identity is like a road or a direction you did choose. Now when you do go that direction you will have to act according to your identity. Identity causes expectations. Is it possible to compose your identity as a work of art, or do other people compose their version of your identity and with that your identity is a social construct?
Karl E. Weick’s Konzept des “Sensemaking”
Intentionality is the subject in a discussion on Dave’s Educational Blog between Keith Hamon and Frances Bell.
In very short: the question is if a node in a knowledge network/rhizome, like you and me, is more than a reacting powerless object of the network/rhizome. (this is too short an abstract of the discussion, you should read it yourself)
This discussion reminds me of the problem of the Collective Unconscious and the Self of Jung. This collective unconscious of Jung is much wider than the personal unconscious of Freud. The collective unconscious of Jung connects us to the history of mankind, the myths and stories of our ancestry.
Karl E. Weick and Sensemaking could shine a light on this subject of agency in a network.
George Siemens mentions the nature of connections. Wonder if we could say that some/all connections are sense-making-connections?
“…Understanding. Coherence. Sensemaking. Meaning. These elements are prominent in constructivism, to a lessor extent cognitivism, and not at all in behaviourism. But in connectivism, we argue that the rapid flow and abundance of information raises these elements to critical importance…” George Siemens.
In therapy Jung tried to make sense in the lives of his patients, it is a nice parallelism.
Image: In Franfurt am Main (Deutschland) you find this statue “Ich” of Hans Traxler. (Ich = I / me). The statue is empty.
Mensbeeld (Imaginem Humana) in a connectivist world #change11
If we want to know more about Connectivism as a theory of learning or knowledge or teaching, we could look at the “view of man” (mensbeeld) that is implied or expressed in connectivist texts.
A mensbeeld we call a set of assumptions and stories that relates to how people view human beings. Mensbeeld is Dutch for View of Man, Imaginem Humana (Latin), image humane (Fr).
Three bits of connectivist text to start with:
“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.” [Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age, 2004, George Siemens]
Do people change when their culture changes? (are people autonomous and independent or are they victim of external forces?)
Do humans change their culture?
Is it human destination to flourish?
Has learning ever been an internal individualistic activity?
“This implies a pedagogy that (a) seeks to describe ‘successful’ networks (as identified by their properties, which I have characterized as diversity, autonomy, openness, and connectivity) and (b) seeks to describe the practices that lead to such networks, both in the individual and in society (which I have characterized as modeling and demonstration (on the part of a teacher) and practice and reflection (on the part of a learner)).” [What Connectivism Is, Stephen Downes, 2007]
Is success an important goal of humans in a connectivist mensbeeld?
Are autonomy, openness and connectivity and diversity also part of the connectivist mensbeeld?
“Active MOOC participants are individuals high in the psychological trait of conscientiousness, geared toward duty and achievement” Individual experiences in MOOCs, part 3 diversity openness, Heli Nurmi
How does connectivism deal with uncertainty and questions with no known answer?
“Where structures of connections (ie., networks) differ from sets of observations or measurements is that there is in principle no external entity to which we can appeal in order to check our understanding. In a networked society, every person is a member of the network, and all things being equal, there is not some other networked society against which we can test our conclusions (prior to the days of global communications, societies did test themselves one against the other, but unfortunately though war and other conflict, a solution that was worse than the problem and which clouded their ability to interpret connections in a rational and dispassionate way).” An Introduction to Connective Knowledge, Stephen Downes, 2005
Is being a member of a network a major property of the mensbeeld?
Will humans improve and forget war?
Will there be a future of peace and justice for all mankind?
Is the mensbeeld rational and dispassionate?
” …Creatagogy? This would be based on a pedagogy for human being where learning is viewed as a growth of creativity and capability for people, with technology as affordance, together with digital pedagogy and netagogy. ” Sui Fai John Mak
Is creativity an important trait for the mensbeeld in Connectivism?
(to be continued)
Comment on ‘Clicker’ project and on publishing #cck11 #mobiMOOC
Marinda,
You did publish your project in http://mobimooc.wikispaces.com/Your+mLearning+project+drafts. Thank you for that. In a MOOC Massive Open Online Course, publishing and sharing is an important feature. Now we are able to read your project and learn from it. And we could comment on it. Some of the participants could have good ideas to improve your project. In sharing our knowledge and discussing our projects we all could learn.
Now I would like to comment your project. I tried to find your name in the mobimooc google group. I could not find you there. I tried Facebook, I did find your name in FB, but I do not know if that is you. The only way to comment on your project is to send you a personal message through the wikispaces wiki. That is not very Open, so I will send you this as a personal message and I will publish this open letter in google groups. That is because I really think openness in a Mooc is very important.
In your clickers project Moodle is used for feedback and for quizzes. Did you consider of using Twitter or other micro blogging apps to do this? Twitter is used for this purpose in universities and schools. It is much more simple to use than Moodle for this purpose. A little HTM-script on a web page will make the posts of students visible. An example of the script is on http://softskills.kennisnet.nl/. You could copy the source of the page and change the script to your purposes.
I hope you will comment on this comment.
(The flowers grow near our village, its tulips)
regards Jaap
Changing views #cck #mobimooc
This last week of cck11 is a week of saying goodbye to all we met in this MOOC. Meeting you has been very valuable, I thank you for sharing. Some of you will go on with mobiMOOC , we will meet again.
In this blogpost some remarks on connectivism and MOOC and of the next things to do.
This last week is a time of reflection. The MOOC was an adventure and an exploratory expedition. Explorations to Screencast and video, Pingback, Portuguese language weblogs and French tweets. Meeting people from all over the world.
In the mobiMOOC I will try to use connectivist principles to mlearning. This blog will continue as a mobimooc blog.
The average learning theorist is a topdown thinker, writing about “…Principles of connectivism:…” . (like most philosophers are) The theory for these theorists is of more value than the daily work in learning and teaching. This discussion on the status of connectivism as a real theory is an example of that top down thinking. “… -While it is not a serious learning theory (or let say a well-established learning theory) …”
In real sciences most people think bottom up, the daily problems are the start of thinking and looking for solutions. I would like connectivism to be a bottom up science. (Who wants to discuss the value of computer science as a theory?). So I do like a starting point in “.. the big 3 questions ..”.
The most important lessons #cck11
Unknown painting critical thinking
What I want to discover in a connectivist approach to education is the subject of these last posts of CCK11.
Vinton G. Cerf writes on Internet Coce of Conduct a little article on Truth. On the problem of making a difference between truth and lies he writes: ” … Let us …. teach our children to think more deeply about what they see and hear. That, more than any electronic filter, will build a foundation upon which truth can stand. … ” .
How does connectivism foster critical thinking?
Connecting to people is a dangerous job. Humans are very prone to group pressure, and often because of that do not think critically. All sorts of trouble come to people because of uncritical following the crowd, or that one person. A very important lesson for our children is to learn to be independent, to think critical and to acquire skills to connect in a sensible and critical way.
” … Students should be encouraged to learn together “while retaining individual control over their time, space, presence, activity, identity” …” writes Debbie Kroeker. This is the connectivist paradox, connect and do not loose your autonomy. We must teach and learn to cope with these two forces of group think and be yourself. Be wise in choosing your connections.
How does connectivism prepare children to this struggle against group pressure?
An other field of concern is politics and economy ” … But how can we seriously expect that the increasing gap between the rich and the poor makes for a stable society for anyone? …” writes Leagrrl. Living together in this world is not always easy, critical thinking is necessary. Do not only connect to Our Kind Of People, do look over your own horizon. Do not exclude.
Does connectivism have an answer to exclusive thinking?
Other lessons learned: Facilitating in a M/mOOC has to be very connectivist. In my opinion facilitating must be done by participants. A bit like shared leadership, every participant is fulfilling a facilitation role or function. These functions could be encouragement, commenting, organizing, socializing, questioning, etc.
Connectivist education and the future of children #cck11
One remarkable feature of most learning theories is the lack of a philosophy of learning in which goals and directions of the learning is discussed. Most school systems (read: ”Educational and other despair“) and educational systems just go on teaching the old and trusted courses and subjects. And mistrust students and their new tools: “…One consistent response to this fear is to ban, filter or limit the use in school of the very tools that students are drawn to outside of school….” . (some exceptions).
The Most Important Question for teachers, parents and schools is: What must we teach and what must our children learn? In the Netherlands we see ‘canons’ of all kind. A ‘canon’ is a list of subjects and facts, the ‘canon’ must be learned by every child. (and tested, of course )
One example is the history ‘canon’ with 50 important subjects. But a canon of the future does not exist, what do we have to teach our children to learn them live in their future? It is very difficult to make predictions, and to predict the future is almost impossible. So we cannot know what a person in 2025 has to know. Probably language will be important and technology (?)
In Connectionism “…I am looking for the pragmatic ability to peer into the future…” . Connectionism lays emphasis is on process of learning, on connections. In teaching ‘how to connect to networks of information and people’ connectionism has an answer on the Most Important Question. Because in learning how to connect to information our children receive means to cope with an unpredictable future. Connectionist teaching has to learn to connect, and to foster and maintain good connections with care.
Learning for the future is what connectivism can do. Learning to be a human, and to connect to humans and human knowledge is the core of all education.
Connected Learning #cck11
class games building
Learning is an active process. Learning is connecting information to a knowledge network in order to remember it and use it. The more connections this new information will have the better the recognition and learning. If a student is just listening the connections will be of the ‘listening kind’. And the quality of the listening is equal to the amount of connections made. If this same student is making notes the connections will be of the ‘listening kind’ and of the ‘note taking kind’. If the student afterward does copy and rewrite the notes, that will make more connections. And the quality of the rewriting is equal to the amount of connections made. This student while listening, writing will think about the new information and will connect it to earlier knowledge. This also will connect the new information. The student will try to analyze and use the information, make a diagram or a mindmap. Learning is connecting information in different ways with other information and knowledge.
One other view on connected learning. The walls between subjects and courses are barriers to learning. In some educational systems where every subject has a teacher) a wide gap exists between arts and science and language. But if a student is learning to build computer games all these subjects have to be integrated. A student learning to design textile has to integrate the arts and sciences. Every teacher and every subject has a lot to do with language. When writing an article is a subject in language lessons, it is an artificial kind of work. When writing is a part of an assignment in another subject the writing has a natural function. Teachers of science and teachers of language should work together in schools. Team teaching is a connective way of teaching. In traditional education the student has to connect information of different courses and subjects and teachers, and nobody cares. In connected learning teachers and students will connect information from different subjects in a natural way.
Get it #cck11 Light Bulb Experience
We have ample evidence that a proportion of students do eventually “get it”. And once they complete their course and get into practice, a substantial majority get it. But it’s not clear how we get them to get it, if you see what I mean. We seem to be trying to teach the unteachable (the ideas, not the students). Atherton J S (2011). Jenny Mackness blogged about this research on light bulb experiences.
I wonder if networks do make students ‘get it’ better or sooner than teachers in a classic setting? “Sitting next to Nellie” is a way of connecting to people who know and to knowledge.
For Etienne Wenger, learning is central to human identity. A primary focus of Wenger’s more recent work is on the individual as an active participant in the practices of social communities, and in the construction of his/her identity through these communities (Wenger et. al 2004). In this context, a community of practice is a group of individuals participating in communal activity, and experiencing/continuously creating their shared identity through engaging in and contributing to the practices of their communities.
A Community of Practice is a tight-knit social construct, and the concept of network has challenged the concept of a tight-knit social construct. Networks are loosely organized structures in which people do not necessarily collaborate or communicate directly. However, the question is what role networks play in relation to learning. A conclusion of this debate is that there exists a form of social interaction – social networking – that learning theories have difficulty explaining. More questions arise: What kind of relations support learning, and, specifically, how do networks support learning? … Learning takes place through problem-oriented activities, in which students are directed at solving a problem or achieving a goal.
“…Within cooperative online learning a central challenge is to enable students to follow the work of their colleagues. If students are unaware of the activities of fellow students, they might not make use of each other. This problem is reinforced within online education, where students do not meet face-to-face….” This problem in network learning has to be solved in the network. The network exists thanks to technical possibilities like social media. The possibilities of social media have to be used by students in the network to foster transparency and awareness. This is still a problem ”… Discourse and interaction won’t happen that easily if course participants are too dispersed over different spaces. …” .The problem is not the dispersion, the problem is students did not learn to connect. A forum is not the solution, people connecting to people is the solution.
One practical and technical solution is to make use of pingback to connect blogging students.
In cooperative online learning students must be encouraged to share. “If you don’t share you don’t cooperate, you don’t learn”. Learning is not reading a text twice. Learning is to manipulate information, play with information, until the the light is shining, a connection is emerging, knowledge is being made.
