Seeing the Whole Picture

     I used to think I was a pretty traditional learner. To learn anything, I had to take notes in which I would summarize the main points of the lecture or while reading and I had to highlight important parts of the text. When I did those things, I knew was learning. I thought I learned namely via methods of cognitivism; I was organizing, storing, and retrieving information through my methods of note-taking and summarization (Ertmer & Newby, 1993, p. 58). Yet now I understand my learning has a broader scope, especially when examined through the  lens of connectivism. Learning isn't a formal experience that can only happen in a classroom--learning happens during my interactions with people, social networks, professional development, and the internet and most of those are quite informal experiences!

     The theory of connectivism explains how all of those pieces of my life help me learn. Connectivism was conceived by theorist George Siemens and he defines it this way:

Connectivism is driven by the understanding that decisions are based on rapidly altering foundations. New information is continually being acquired and the ability to draw distinctions between important and unimportant information is vital. Also critical is the ability to recognize when new information alters the landscape based on decisions made yesterday. (Davis, Edmunds, & Kelly-Bateman, 2008)

Basically that's a fancy way of saying that learning happens through networking and connecting information to prior knowledge. Now I understand that my learning happens almost without me even realizing it. Via social networks like Twitter, I'm connected to respected education experts who share articles and links while Facebook connects me to my former classmates and colleagues so we can share ideas and advice, too. Pinterest lets me see what other educators are doing or thinking about and Diigo can help me bookmark resources for later. Yes, this means some of my "learning may reside in non-human appliances" (Davis, Edmunds, & Kelly-Bateman, 2008), but that's a connectivist principle and it is merely another way of organizing information. There is only so much one person can remember, so it's comforting to know some of that pressure is taken away because I know where to go to retrieve the information when I need it (and when I need it, I tend to remember it better, too). Likewise being able to find reliable information quickly is an important skill since education is an industry that lives with a constant ebb and flow. The "capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known" (Davis, Edmunds, & Kelly-Bateman, 2008), another connectivist principle, is important because I need to stay current with best educational practices if I am to be a successful educator.

     I wasn't wrong about my learning style during the first week of class; however, I wasn't seeing the whole picture. I now understand how difficult it can be to separate learning styles and theories and I can comprehend how some theories work together to complement each other and weave a tapestry of knowledge. As I continue to learn and grow, I now feel as though I have the proper tools and information to help me maximize my learning potential, especially thanks to connectivism, the theory that helps me make sense out of my life experiences and the connections I have to others and information in the world.

References

Davis, C., Edmunds, E., & Kelly-Bateman, V. (2008). Connectivism. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Connectivism

Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J. (1993). Behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism: Comparing critical features from an instructional design perspective. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 6(4),50-71.