[p2p-research] Fwd: Connectivism Online Course - starts monday 8 september

Sat Sep 6 04:32:47 CEST 2008

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Dante-Gabryell Monson <dante.monson at gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Sep 6, 2008 at 1:38 AM
Subject: Connectivism Online Course - starts monday 8 september
To: sustainable_solidarity at yahoogroups.com, hc_ecology at yahoogroups.com,
learningfromeachother at yahoogroups.com, tsolife-disc at lists.riseup.net

open online course on Connectivism <http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/connectivism/>.
The course begins on Monday and is freely available to anyone with an
interest in learning more about the topic. You can sign up for free
here<http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/connectivism/?page_id=3>
.

http://elearnspace.org/media/GettingStarted/player.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: George Siemens <gsiemens at elearnspace.org>
Date: Fri, Sep 5, 2008 at 8:25 PM
Subject: Connectivism:
To: dante.monson at gmail.com

* Connectivism*

* Learning for today's learner*

You are subscribed to Connectivism's <http://www.connectivism.ca/> blog
summary email. To unsubscribe, see end of this email. To subscribe, click
here <http://www.connectivism.ca/>

Questions or Comments? Contact Me <gsiemens at elearnspace.org>

------------------------------

September 5, 2008

As mentioned in June, we are offering an open online course on
Connectivism<http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/connectivism/>.
The course begins on Monday and is freely available to anyone with an
interest in learning more about the topic. You can sign up for free
here<http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/connectivism/?page_id=3>.
The course outline is also
available<http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/wiki/Connectivism>.
And, for a bit more information, I've put together a short introductory
presentation <http://elearnspace.org/media/GettingStarted/player.html> on
how the course operates.
For learners wishing formal credit through University of Manitoba, a paid
enrollment option <http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/connectivism/?p=67> is also
available.

As posted on my elearnspace site, I have an article available on New spaces
and structures of learning: the systemic impact of connective knowledge,
connectivism, and networked
learning<http://elearnspace.org/Articles/systemic_impact.htm>(MS
Word file <http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/systemic_impact.doc>). The
concepts explored in the article are reflective of a previous discussion on
this site about "a world without courses". How long, after all, can we flirt
at the edges of change before we seek a full embrace?

I had a nice chat with Richard Schwier on connectivism. He has posted the
video on his site: Interview on
Connectivism<http://omegageek.net/rickscafe/?p=1193>.
As I mentioned during the discussion, at a recent conference, Stephen Downes
and I were chatting about research basis for learning theories. The notion
of connectivism - pick another term like networked learning if that works
better for you - is better supported through research than existing theories
of learning. The concepts from AI, connectionism, cognitive neuroscience,
conceptual learning, and social network analysis - all of which form key
foundations of connectivism - all contribute to validating learning in
networks.

...and, I was recently also interview by Robin Good. We chatted about learning,
connectivism, and social media <http://blip.tv/file/1196315>.

Matthias Melcher (I think that's his name - had to dig around his x28
blog<http://x28newblog.blog.uni-heidelberg.de/>for a bit) provides an
interesting commentary on why he feels connectivism
should not be seen as a learning theory. I'll quote it at length:

IMO, a definition or description would be more appropriate for simpler
things that do not suffer when they are isolated and formalized. I think, a
complex, emerging concept like connectivism is better understood by its
relationships. So, rather than "What is…", I would prefer something like
"How is it related", or connected, to other ideas, or even, to the world.
Connectivism would, IMO, suffer from restricting definitions such as being a
learning theory, which has to obey traditional criteria of an empirically
provable but very narrow scope of application. Even though the theory is
addressing extensive changes and emancipation, this will not increase the
perceived scope of what the theory explains but, instead, the prevailing
resistance against such changes will further diminish and restrict the
conceded scope.
The whole new view, however, that is enabled by connectivism, extends to
much more than learning and schools. Downes' and Siemens' discussions shed
new light on fundamental concepts, such as rules versus patterns,
complicated vs. complex, equivalence vs. similarity, and coping with
ambiguity and uncertainty. And these consideration render many entrenched
practices of the entire knowledge industry questionable.

Late last week, I threw out a
question<http://twitter.com/gsiemens/statuses/875982639>to Gary
Stager <http://www.stager.org/> on Twitter: "when a constructivist
constructs knowledge, where does it reside physically/biologically?". Gary
replied with something along the lines of "we don't know and I don't care. I
can teach well without knowing the details of how the mind works". Fair
enough. Different educators adopt different approaches in order to makesense
of the teaching and learning process. I'm trying to define it from the
perspective of how our mind works. Gary is - in true constructionist form
(and I don't mean that negatively!) - is focused more on the practical
results and activities.
Gary then asked a critical question: what is the unique idea in
connectivism? The response takes a bit longer than the 140 characters
allowed by Twitter, so I'll tackle it here. Read
More<http://connectivism.ca/blog/2008/08/what_is_the_unique_idea_in_con.html>

Parmenides <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parmenides> held to a view that
nothing changes. Everything is permanent and unchangeable. While we have
only fragments of his writing, his ideas are prominent in Plato, which in
turn gives Parmenides a weight in philosophy that is often not explicitly
acknowledged. Heraclitus <http://www.iep.utm.edu/h/heraclit.htm>, on the
other hand, felt everything was in a state of flux and change. He is
credited with some variation of the common statement: you can't step into
the same river twice (or, more precisely, you can't step into the same water
twice, even if the river itself remains largely unchanged). While Parmenides
thoughts found some resonance with ancient
atomists<http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/atomism-ancient/>,
and occur in the ongoing quest of physics to find the one base element of
all things (currently this has been reduced to such a level that it has
become nonsensical to most human beings - note string theory), most people
today would likely find Heraclitus' view of change to be more reflective of
reality. *Read more*<http://connectivism.ca/blog/2008/07/a_humble_call_for_a_new_discip.html>

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