Connectivism and Education in our Society.

Today’s teachers are like multi-players. They have to consider develop the new teaching skills following the changing society as well as consider students’ different learning styles.

Not only getting the knowledge of the subject they teach, but also other fields that teachers have to learn and apply them differently.

According to George Siemens in the article,Connectivism:A Learning Theory for the Digital Age, “One of the most persuasive factors is the shrinking half-life of knowledge. The “half-life of knowledge” is the time span from when knowledge is gained to when it becomes obsolete.”

I think the most important thing for teachers to concern is how to deal with network and how to utilize it effectively in classroom. as we all know, online networking community has very strong power to manage our society, especially our students now are more familiar with this system than teachers.

  There are many theories to utilize in the creation of instructional environments. Among them, we need to consider connectivisom as more influencing learning theory for digital age. In a video, titled “theconflict of learning theories with human nature” Siemens argues, “anything we need to reverse the image and look at it from inside were learning is active knowledge. Creation is a function of network.”

Connectivism sees learning as the process of creation connections and developing a network. A notion of “know-where” can supplement to the ones of “know-how” and “know-what” that make the cornerstones of many theories of learning.

Resources:

http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Jan_05/article01.htm
Siemens, G.  (2005, January).  Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age.  International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, Retrieved November 20, 2005

The Conflict of Learning Theories with Human Nature (4:13 minutes)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTgWt4Uzr54&feature=PlayList&p=3E43054A8703F57A&index=2 Retrieved January 10, 2009.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connectivism