Connectivism - Teaching for the 21st Century

What is connectivism? According to George Siemens, connectivism is a "learning theory for the digital age." This is a learning theory designed for today's learner and helps to explain the limitations of the behaviourism, cognitivison and constructivism theory of previous years.



Bill Gates said:


"America's high schools are obsolete. By obsolete, I don't just mean that they're broken, flawed or underfunded, though a case could be made for every one of those points. By obsolete, I mean our high schools - even when they're working as designed - cannot teach all our students what they need to know today."


Why is that the case? What is going on? After reading George Siemens's Knowing Knowledge and Will Richardson's article World Without Walls, I realize teachers need to take on new roles in education. We need to prepare students for the 21st century in a way that is only just beginning to take shape. Students need to become life long learners, prepare for multiple careers by being able to learn and relearn as knowledge changes. They need to think global, learn decision- making skills to evaluate information and as Siemens states, 'know-where is more important then know-how."


The teacher becomes the facilitator, flexible, open, enthusiastic; shaping the learning process, modeling proper editing, locating valid websites and social collaboration. Social tools like blogs, skype, wikis, and social-bookmarking sites make the process easier. But there also lies some of our challenges. Teachers, administrators, parents and school board members still hold tight to our old methods of teaching therefore not preparing students properly for the future. Laws require filters to be used on computer networks usually blocking anothing that refers to "social."


There is good news. Universities, such as Plymouth State University offers a course called Teaching and Learning in a Networked Classroom. This course is helping teachers reshape their view of teaching to prepare our students of the 21st century. The instuctors model the role of facillitators allowing the students to learn by experimentation through social networks.



I recently viewed a posting from the blog site, Fischbowl, by Karl Fisch entitled A Whole new learning Experience: Take Two. The posting describes the learning experience of high school students in a language arts class reading A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink, and discussing it in class using the live fischbowl method along with 30 other educators from around the world. The students complete their project with a Wikified Research paper. Included is a 38 minute video produced by Dana Levesque, a technology specialist, discussing preparation and reactions to this project as well as the technology used. This is a must see! I believe this is truly what connectivism is all about and would like to make that my personal and educational goal to promote this kind of learning with my students.