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Week 9 - Digital

Before Class
After reading the required article 'Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age', fill out the following form with your responses to check your understanding of some of the key ideas within it. 
Wisdom of the Crowd
We begin this week be reflecting on last week's the Wisdom of the Crowd activity, guessing the number of jelly beans in the jar. Surowiecki (2004) claimed that "Under the right circumstances, groups are remarkably intelligent, and are often smarter than the smartest people in them. Groups do not need to be dominated by exceptionally intelligent people in order to be smart, and still they are better at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, and even predicting the future." The earliest exmaple of this phenomenon was observed by Francis Galton at a country fair where people were asked to guess the weight of an ox. The mean average was close to the actual weight. The standard deviation was expansive but the key was that the mean average was exceptionally close. This demonstrates the ability of the mean of the group being able to solve a simple problem.  see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Galton#Variance_and_standard_deviation
Connecting and Collaborating
When we talk about digital and collaborative learning as the two main concepts behind the postgraduate programme, this linking of digital tools and collaboration acknowledges the critical role of information and communication technologies in enabling contemporary forms of collaboration. The "learners in the digital age are able to connect and collaborate with people beyond their physical environment. They can connect a range of information or data and draw on a range of perspectives to collaboratively generate and critique new ideas." (Starkey, 2012).
Personal Learning Networks (PLNs) and Environments (PLEs)
A personal learning network is an informal learning network that consists of those people who a learner interacts with and derives knowledge from. These may be people known personally, but equally they may be people who are only connected via the Web, and there may be no personal interaction, simply an exchange of learning.
The term 'personal learning environment' (PLE) is sometimes used in conjunction with PLNs, but focuses more on the toolset that learners use in order to implement their learning networks (PLN). In essence, it is possible to have a personal learning network that is entirely face to face (though this would be rather limiting). In contrast a PLE assumes a digital toolset that will support the interactive learning process (EDUCAUSE, 2009). 
PLN is the who, PLE is the how.
Toni's PLG and PLN link

See Google+ network for the finished product. 
DeWitt (2016) states that “Having a PLN is a necessary requirement to being an instructional leader because your PLN will stretch your thinking, offer an encouraging word, share resources, and help you bring out your best.”
Connectivism - the work of Siemens and Downes
There are several principles of the theory of connectivism, as outlined by George Siemens in 2004, in his article “Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age” (Siemens, 2004). Siemens has also pioneered the types of online course that have been labelled 'MOOCs' (Massive Open Online Courses). 
Stephen Downes, who has worked with Siemens on these courses, emphasises that their style of MOOC is connectivist (cMOOC), while other types of MOOC use more conventional approaches. Downes has collected his extensive writing on connectivism into an online book (Downes, 2012). In this book he notes that “The scope of my work covers three major domains, knowledge, learning and community. Each of these represents an aspect of network theory: the first, examining the cognitive properties of networks, the second, looking at how networks learn, and the third, tracing the properties of effective networks. These also represent the processes of learning, inference and discovery in society writ large.” (p.9).
In today's session we will be looking at six of these essays using this http://tinyurl.com/DownesEssays
  • A Gathering of Ideas (p.32)
  • The Space Between the Notes (p.62)
  • Diagrams and Networks (p.78) 
  • Creating the Connectivist Course (p.503)
  • Where the Future Lies (p.578) 
  • Engagement and Personalized Learning (p.580)
Principles of Connectivism
Siemens (2004) summarises the eight principles of connectivism as:
  1. Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions.
  2. Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources.
  3. Learning may reside in non-human appliances.
  4. Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known
  5. Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.
  6. Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.
  7. Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities.
  8. Decision-making is itself a learning process. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision.
References:
DeWitt, P. (2016). Collaborative Leadership: Six Influences That Matter Most. Thousand Oaks CA: Corwin
Downes, S. (2012). Connectivism and Connective Knowledge: Essays on meaning and learning networks. Retrieved from http://www.downes.ca/files/books/Connective_Knowledge-19May2012.pdf
EDUCAUSE. (2009). 7 things you should know about Personal Learning Environments. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eli7049.pdf
Siemens, G. (2004). Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. eLearnSpace. Retrieved from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm
Starkey, L. (2012). Teaching and Learning in the Digital Age. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge
Surowiecki, J. (2004). The Wisdom of Crowds. New York, NY: Doubleday, Anchor.

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