It is a bit small, however you can open it in a new window if you click on it. One change I would make in this mind map on connectivism would result in the drawing below.
As I was creating changes in the mind map, I felt that Connectivism emcompasses communication. I have seen where others suggest that connectivism also includes all of the other learning theories, and I think that might also be true. We do not learn simply by using all of the resources in the image above, but we have had to get our learning to the level to where we are able to use external resources.
This could go into an endless circle of discussion of how the learning theories are connected, or blended into each other.
As far as my personal learning is affected, the tools that I use online and have used ever since I discovered the Internet have greatly increased my learning power.
Now that I am at the age where friends are having grandchildren, I am noticing how infants act and how they have a motivation to learn. Is their learning intrinsic? It seems that it is necessary to survival. Is it based on basic behavior theory? If they cry, they get a response, and hopefully it is always a positive one. When they do something cute and funny they also get a response from the adults around them. Babies fortunate enough to always be around supportive grandparents and parents are happy babies. I am not sure if they learn faster, maybe they just learn to react or act differently from babies who do not have the family connections.
I am including this as a way to discover how the motivation to learn stays with some (or is it most people) throughout life. We go from infancy and learning behavior and responses either positive to negative, and then into elementary school about 5 years later, where we are still either being praised or negatively reinforced for our behaviors. I was not praised for my intelligence as an elementary student. I talked too much, and now as an adult I still talk, but mostly to myself.
Even though I was never the ones the teachers gave their attention to as having some great gift for learning, I still was motivated to learn. I loved to learn. I was always reading books from the library. I was always fascinated with machinery and always there to help my father work on the car, or the washing machine, or to be around watching when he was building something.
The motivation carried over into my adult life. It had to be intrinsic since I was always shy and never wanted to stand out from the crowd. In high school my friends were all the smartest kids in the school. I think they liked me because I made them laugh. They had 4.0 gpa's and I worked like crazy to keep above a 3.0. They were all in AP classes. I wasn't. It made me wonder what was wrong with my brain. I liked hanging out with the smart kids. I loved their vocabularies, and how their brains worked. Their parents were professionals, mine were not. They lived in really nice houses, I lived on the other side of the tracks. Looking back, I am really thankful that they were my friends. It gave me more motivation to complete college, and for the importance of knowing how to communicate well.
Not everyone has that motivation that carries over into adulthood. When you look at my mind map, you see tools I use to increase my knowledge. How does the motivation for learning change? Why do people choose to watch mindless television shows or play games where they want you to play so you can help them feed their farm animals instead of watching something educational (not Duck Dynasty), or using search engines for more information?
Does our educational system inhibit learning for those who struggle, and teach them to settle for less? There are so many tools out there now to help everyone. Is connectivism only for the adult learner, or should it be brought into education a lot sooner?
I looked at Stephen Downes's blog, and that lead me to his www.slideshare.net presentation titled, Connectivism: A Theory of Personal Learning (2008). He has pictures of his personal learning environment. It is mostly a laptop, and related mice, keyboards, monitors. Maybe there is a tower hidden on the floor. His learning tools are a bit different from mine, and perhaps I would add some of his next time.
There is a great quote from Aristotle with a picture of a child using some science tools. The quote reads, "We learn how to do things by doing the things we are learning to do." That is a great quote!
Stephen Downes is an advocate for free learning resources. I think the world has changed a lot since 2008, and more and more the tools are being sold. However there is still so much available free, when you open the World Wide Web.
I recommend spending the time to view the 97 slides, and I will include the link at the end of this posting. You can see how without looking at this presentation before starting my personal mind map, I use some of the same things that Downes does, but he seems to have a better way of presenting it. This one presentation of his can lead to hours of discoveries.
This is the way of the web, and all the technology we have at our disposal. If there was a lot when Downes made this presentation in 2008, you know there is a whole lot more information available now.
How do I keep from being overwhelmed with all the information? Which tools help me the most? I would have to list Google Search as the top tool for me. From Google Search I can choose how I want to view the information.
The menu at the top where I can choose, Books, Images, Videos, More, or Search Tools, helps me to narrow my search. Google used to have one where you could specify blogs. Maybe blogs are the main source in results now. I wonder how many others start their searching with Google.
I enjoy videos, because I can pause them. Videos with transcripts are even better for my learning style. I can print out the transcript and make notes in it as I pause the video, or highlight areas I want to refer back to later.
Blogs are a great resource for me. There are usually ways to contact the author. However when you are using an older blog there is no guarantee that you will have your questions answered. Most blog readers who take time to read comments will have something positive to say, and might offer help for your question. It is not the same on YouTube where comments can be just cruel.
There are ways to use the hash tags (#) on Social Networks, to search for people who comment on things of interest, or you can find Google Plus Groups, or groups in Facebook. You can even start your own. Build your own personal network of people with similar interests. I have networks for different areas of interest.
Connectivism takes into account that the world is rapidly changing due to the availability of information from the whole world. Theories might change rapidly as we are able to access more information using the Internet. However with this information we have to be able to determine what is truth and what is fiction. We have to consider there is a world of talented graphic artists who can make a whole reality based on what they are capable of creating with drawings that seem to be real photographs (Siemens, 2004).
When I start with my individual knowledge, or lack of it, and then build my network for that knowledge, and conduct more research to determine the parts that are viable and those that are not necessary or not substantiated by facts, I can build a solid network. From just one person I can expand my knowledge globally, and stay up to date as new findings are produced.
Connectivism is based on the individuals need to know, and then the need to share. Just as I had the smart friends in high school who were willing to share their knowledge with me, now that same practice has expanded more than I ever could imagine back then.
References:
Downes, S. (2008, December 3). Connectivism: A Theory of Personal Learning. Retrieved February 9, 2014, from http://www.slideshare.net/Downes/connectivism-a-theory-of-personal-learning
Siemens, G. (2004, December 12). Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. Retrieved February 9, 2014, from http://www.ingedewaard.net/papers/connectivism/2005_siemens_ALearningTheoryForTheDigitalAge.pdf
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