Connectivitism

Connectivitism. In contrast to the learning theories of behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism, connectivism has been developed in a time when learning has been impacted by technology and thus includes technology and connection making as learning activities.  This theory has many interesting aspects. For example, the fact that competence comes not from our knowledge of something, but our ability to make the connections and find information about that thing.  In the past, information's development was slow and its lifespan long, but now most information has the half-life of about 18 months.  Because of this incredibly short lifespan and the ever increasing accessibility of information, what is important is not knowing the answer to your question, but being able to filter through information to find the answer.



Connectivitism as a learning theory is certainly a relevant one.  I think that it has many valid claims and benefits which apply to many instances.  We had a "fishbowl" discussion activity and discussed several of the claims of connectivitism during this time.  These included the claim that learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions, that learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources, that learning may reside in non-human appliances, and that capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known.  I believe that each of these claims are generally true.  However,  I think that it is important to note the limitations to these statements.  Although capacity to know has gained importance in our society, that does not mean that knowing things for oneself is completely moot.  As a future math and physics teacher, I have experienced firsthand the benefits of understanding concepts and recalling them later for use in more advanced problems, as well as the critical thinking skills I have gained through working hard to learn and know a concept and apply it to different situations.  I agree that many things have changed, for example, if I forget a math fact, it is much easier to look it up quickly than it was 50 or even 25 years ago.  However, as advanced as our technology may be, it still remains important to seek to know things for our own cognitive stimulation.