Connecting with Connectivism

Connectivism actually seemed pretty intuitive to me.

Maybe that's because I'm a millennial who attended high school from 2006-2010 at a school where "Global Citizenship" was a course required to graduate. The ISTE standards generally seem well-aligned with what my teachers in high school were aiming for. Maybe I was just lucky to be in a good school district (shoutout to Bainbridge Island!)

Thanks, BHS.

As I read Sieman's article (which was written in 2004, and fun fact, the website he built to accompany it no longer exists), a lot of my annotations consisted of "this is obvious," "this is how I already understand learning," and "OF COURSE we need a diversity of opinions and experiences since individuals can't possibly contain all necessary information!"*

(*These aren't exact quotes. If you're really interested, you can see my annotations here, but disclaimer: I wasn't making these comments for public view, so you get an unfiltered look into my thoughts. Be warned.)

Even though I think I have a good foundation to start from when it comes to understanding and valuing Connectivism, I still have a long way to go to put these ideas into practice as a future teacher. Particularly using technology in a way that really transforms the classroom is a key part of the goals we should be aiming for, and something I personally don't have a ton of experience with from my own education.

Educators have to aim high. Not to be cliche, but shoot for those stars!

Making sure the educational experiences I will provide as a teacher reflect today's chaotic social landscape will certainly be a challenge - this generation of students is pretty different from my own, and I need to keep that distinction in mind as a teacher. I'm looking forward to getting to know more kiddos this fall, and put some of these theories to the test.