I have been thinking about how I have a contrary opinion of Connectivism as it is applied in education. Most of the time, I hear the properties of Social Constructivism mislabeled as Connectivism without regard to the special features of learning organism and learning organization. I have to wonder if Connectivism is a useful framework for formal learning at all. I always associate Connectivism with informal learning.
I would say that even the #cck12 course is not an example that one could use to fully explain Connectivism. Social Constructivism is an adequate framework for this type of learning, decentralized as it is. I think that the evidence for learning in a network is quite different from the goals of a social media enabled course or CoP. Most theories in this are locate knowing and learning as cognitive (neurological) or psychological (mind). Connectivism locates learning in collective action and novel problem solving. In a university course, the intentional sense-making is a Social Constructivist activity; the extra-course optional emergent and self-organizing collective action as an unintended outcome is the Connectivism.
The issue is a bit semantic, of course. Great learning is the real goal, not a debate about vocabulary. Still, I have been researching ways to measure informal learning using Connectivism as my framework. I have been hatching a process for measuring informal learning potential with existing data and free Internet tools. It was this special case of the learning organization that inspired me, and in no way did I see that the evidence for the health of such an organism would be found in my home turf of formal learning.
I would say that even the #cck12 course is not an example that one could use to fully explain Connectivism. Social Constructivism is an adequate framework for this type of learning, decentralized as it is. I think that the evidence for learning in a network is quite different from the goals of a social media enabled course or CoP. Most theories in this are locate knowing and learning as cognitive (neurological) or psychological (mind). Connectivism locates learning in collective action and novel problem solving. In a university course, the intentional sense-making is a Social Constructivist activity; the extra-course optional emergent and self-organizing collective action as an unintended outcome is the Connectivism.
The issue is a bit semantic, of course. Great learning is the real goal, not a debate about vocabulary. Still, I have been researching ways to measure informal learning using Connectivism as my framework. I have been hatching a process for measuring informal learning potential with existing data and free Internet tools. It was this special case of the learning organization that inspired me, and in no way did I see that the evidence for the health of such an organism would be found in my home turf of formal learning.
