Learning Connections & The Theory of Connectivism

My network has profoundly changed the way I learn. It was through friends and family that I became introduced to the online social networks of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Before this, these terms that are now used in everyday conversation like colloquialisms from a sitcom were a foreign language to me. Tentatively, I delved into this unknown culture, and was delighted to find that I could actually breathe in its unique atmosphere and intuitively find my way around. It was as if I had landed on another planet.

Before I knew it, I was navigating the virtual superhighway. I felt like George Jetson! A whole new phenomenon for job searching and professional networking opened up before me. Long gone were the days of hunting the classifieds of the local newspaper for job openings and sending blind resume's to companies hoping one of them might, through the Grace of God, catch someone's eye. Suddenly, with the click of my mouse, I was transported out of my home office to around the globe. I was actually networking with professionals that were willing to help me in my quest to live and work in Dubai!

It wasn't long before I realized that I wasn't the only person looking to make my way to Dubai. It seemed everyone was headed that way, and I was at the end of the caravan. Basic economics clicked in, and I knew that anyone hiring for Dubai could get the cream-of-the-crop. Suddenly, I was catapulted to a whole new level of competition, and I hadn't even felt myself being shot out of the cannon! That's when I instantly knew that I had to do something drastic to hone my skills in order to be marketable in this new arena, and I had to do it FAST.

I had always wanted to go to graduate school. In fact, when my tenth grade English teacher had us write a paper on the first day of class about where we saw ourselves in ten years, I was certain I would have a PhD. Now, almost 30 years later, I was no where near that early vision. I knew the time had come to go back to school. There was not a moment to delay. And so, thanks once more to the magic of the digitial age, I found a graduate program that would be the perfect icing on the cake of my career: a Masters in Science in Instructional Design and Technology. What was even better for me, the university that offers this program is international ~ a global university. For me, that means I can accept a job offer in Dubai, AND continue working on my degree. For the first time in my life, such extremely diverse goals are no longer mutually exclusive. This is the miracle of the digital age and all of its wonderous tools that are available to anyone, anywhere, at anytime.

I have become a recent convert to blogging. It's like eating potato chips. You just cannot put them down. For me, blogging has become an enjoyable digital tool for learning. With the ease of today's search engines, thanks to Google, Yahoo! and others, you can search for anything you want to know about and find it on line. Reading what experts in any field have to say through blogging makes learning fun and easy. There is a sense of camraderie that you can achieve by having direct access to their wisdom and guidance. The old corporate and academic hierarchy classes are stripped away through blogging. The rigidity and stuffiness of those old structures do not exist in the blog world. Even the definition of expert is being redefined, moment by moment, as each new blog posting finds its way onto the web. Better yet, the intimidation factor is alleviated. Any blog reader can feel free to question, debate, clarify and contribute to the subject matter at hand which is a wonderful way for everyone who reads and/or participates in the blog to get the benefit of each other's experience.

"At its core, George Siemens' theory of connectivism is the combined effort of three different components: chaos theory, importance of networks, and the interplay of complexity and self-organization" (Davis, Edmunds, & Kelly-Bateman, 2008). From my discussion above, I think the importance of networks, as one of the theory's components, has been made clear. "...We can no longer personally experience everythng there is to experience as we try to learn something new. We must create networks...By using thse networks...learning communities can share their ideas with others, thereby 'cross-pollinating' the learning environment (Siemens, 2005, para. 21)" (Davis, Edmunds, & Kelly-Bateman, 2008).

Chaos theory tells us "...if the underlying conditions used to make decisions change, the decision itself is no longer as correct as it was at the time it was made. 'The ability to recognize and adjust to pattern shifts, therefore, becomes a key learning task' (Siemens, 2005, para. 18)" (Davis, Edmunds, & Kelly-Bateman, 2008). Chaos theory is extremely relevant to the new digital age and the type of learning that must take place within it. New information is available at such a rapid pace that what has learned becomes obsolete and unuseful to us often before we have the opportunity to apply or utilize the knowledge. The ability to maintain the flexibility and readiness needed to adjust to shifting patterns in information has never before been so critical. Being able to access the up-to-the-moment and in-depth information on a subject matter in the blink of an eye with the click of your mouse has become invaluable. Thus, the personal learning networks we create and participate in the virtual world help to support this component of connectivism as well.

Finally, with respect to the last component of connectivism, complexity and self-organization, we know from Luis Mateus Rocha's definition, as shared by Davis, Edmunds, & Kelly-Bateman, that self-organization is the "...'spontaneous formation of well organized structures, patterns, or behaviors, from random initial conditions'" (Davis, Edmunds, & Kelly-Bateman, 2008). When we look closely at the mind map of my learning connections above, we can easily identify these connections as an organized structure of random conditions. Rarely, would these individual structures find such a meaningful way to be organized and connected to each other. We could go even further to link, via a random connection in my organization, Jackie's School Blog, to the mind map of Jackie's learning connections, thereby spontaneously extending my own connections. Nothing could be more random than both Jackie and I being in the same class, in the same program, at the same university, at the same time. What a complex system we are, Jackie and I, having unwittingly become interacting agents. Certainly this illustrates "...the delicate interplay between complexity and self-organization..." (Davis, Edmunds, & Kelly-Bateman, 2008). As such, I suggest that my personal learning network does support the central tenets of connectivism as all three of it's theory's components have herewith been identified and supported.

REFERENCE:

Davis, C., Edmunds, E., & Kelly-Bateman, V. (2008). Connectivism. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Connectivism