Connectivism

In Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age, George Siemens explains the need to adopt more contemporary understandings of knowledge and learning that fit our current technology and educational habits. Prior learning theories, such as behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism, do not really address the practice of acquiring and sharing information through networks. Siemens describes connectivism as “the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organization theories.” And goes on to identify learning as “a process that occurs within nebulous environments of shifting core elements – not entirely under the control of the individual” (Siemens, 2005).

Paul Chan, Score for 7th Light, 2007

Siemens’s depiction of today’s learner is much like a jazz musician. Though a more traditional player could be trained to read and recite music written on the score, many players without composition backgrounds find it difficult to improvise. In jazz, however, players tend to focus on playing by ear – that is, listening to the relationships between notes and mentally connecting those sounds to physical positions on their instruments. Jazz musicians often play around a barebones musical structure that offers players minimal information about the skeleton of the song. The individual notes and how they are voiced are not specified, left to the players to make those decisions on the fly. In traditional educational settings, learners may have similarly been expected to read and recite scripted knowledge. Today’s learner, like the jazz musician, seems better served by becoming familiar enough with their tools and skills to improvise by creating a solution when prompted by a particular situation. In his presentation What is Connectivism, Siemens notes, “through technology, we’ve had the ability to increase our participation in the creation and sharing of content” (Siemens, 2008). Like a musician listening, calling and responding to the other band members, the learner also uses this call-and-response trade of creative information with other nodes to acquire and share knowledge through their networks.