Connectivism is the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organization theories. Learning is a process that occurs within nebulous environments of shifting core elements – not entirely under the control of the individual.
What is chaos?
Chaos is a new reality for knowledge workers. ScienceWeek (2004) quotes Nigel Calder's definition that chaos is “a cryptic form of order”. Chaos is the breakdown of predictability, evidenced in complicated arrangements that initially defy order. Unlike constructivism, which states that learners attempt to foster understanding by meaning making tasks, chaos states that the meaning exists – the learner's challenge is to recognize the patterns which appear to be hidden. Meaning-making and forming connections between specialized communities are important activities.
Jerome Bruner (1960), considers learning to be and active process in which learners build upon current and past knowledge to construct new ideas or concepts. This theory holds that the learner relies on his or her cognitive structure to transform information, develop hypotheses, and make decisions. The learner’s cognitive structure provides meaning and organization to learning experiences that goes beyond just the information that was taught (Kearsley, 1994-2008).
Social constructivism
Social constructivism considers the social aspects of learning. Based largely on the ideas proposed by Lev Vygotsky in the early 1900s, social constructivism makes fundamental assumptions about reality, knowledge, and learning. In social constructivism, reality is a construct of human activity and the properties of the environment are invented by human interaction. Under this assumption, the individual cannot discover reality because reality does not exist until it is invented by the society; hence knowledge is also a social and cultural construct (Kim, 2001). If reality and knowledge are social constructs, then learning must also be a social process (Kim). Learning under this theory then becomes a collaborative or team process, so I hope you are listening to this podcast with a friend.
One of the fascinating aspects of both cognitive and social constructivism is that both Bruner and Vygotsky developed these theories while studying learning and cognition in children. Bruner’s theory is based largely on the childhood cognitive development research of Piaget (Kearsley, 1994-2008).
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Mimio Board and Podcasting
mimio Board interactive whiteboard solution that integrates all the features of mimio and wireless technology into a high quality, porcelain on steel whiteboard. With mimio Board's integrated wireless technology you no longer need to worry about tripping over cables. Mimio Board's durability is top of the line. The whiteboard itself is high quality porcelain steel.
I see an enormous advantage to having a Mimio board. The Mimio would greatly enhance the learning and understanding of academic and non-academic concepts for students. As a teacher, this tool would be amazing! The organization of notes and facility of being to print what was discussed is incredible.
Having this interactive and engaging technology resource will definitely allow me to continue to achieve my 'Cutting Edge' goal for 'all' my students to have the best possible means of achieving academic success and enjoying it.The mimio is a valuable tool that all educators could benefit from. It has the ability to not only help students with day-to-day tasks, but makes them enthusiastic about learning.
I cant wait to go back into my classroom next year and start using mimio board and introduce podcasting.
I see an enormous advantage to having a Mimio board. The Mimio would greatly enhance the learning and understanding of academic and non-academic concepts for students. As a teacher, this tool would be amazing! The organization of notes and facility of being to print what was discussed is incredible.
Having this interactive and engaging technology resource will definitely allow me to continue to achieve my 'Cutting Edge' goal for 'all' my students to have the best possible means of achieving academic success and enjoying it.The mimio is a valuable tool that all educators could benefit from. It has the ability to not only help students with day-to-day tasks, but makes them enthusiastic about learning.
I cant wait to go back into my classroom next year and start using mimio board and introduce podcasting.
Friday, October 10, 2008
where to from here
What is Podcasting?
Podcasting is a newly created term with conflicting origins. “Podcasts are recordings distributed across the Internet as downloadable MP3 files” (Broida, 2005). These multimedia files are accessible by mobile players or personal computers through the use of syndication feeds. Ben Hammersley is credited with the first publication of the term podcasting (Shaughnessy, 2005). The Education Podcast Network (What is a, 2006) described a podcast as a merger between blogging and radio. Jobbings (2005) explained that podcasting is essentially an Internet based radio show. Podcasting involves the process of creating and publishing a digital radio broadcast on the Internet (Jobbings, 2006).
I cant wait until next year when I go back to my school and introduce Podcasting. I am collecting information on podcasting. Very much into podcasting / NET Learning. Most interesting paper I took. I am amazed how much I have learnt about Net Learning..
Podcasting is a newly created term with conflicting origins. “Podcasts are recordings distributed across the Internet as downloadable MP3 files” (Broida, 2005). These multimedia files are accessible by mobile players or personal computers through the use of syndication feeds. Ben Hammersley is credited with the first publication of the term podcasting (Shaughnessy, 2005). The Education Podcast Network (What is a, 2006) described a podcast as a merger between blogging and radio. Jobbings (2005) explained that podcasting is essentially an Internet based radio show. Podcasting involves the process of creating and publishing a digital radio broadcast on the Internet (Jobbings, 2006).
I cant wait until next year when I go back to my school and introduce Podcasting. I am collecting information on podcasting. Very much into podcasting / NET Learning. Most interesting paper I took. I am amazed how much I have learnt about Net Learning..
Friday, September 19, 2008
Digital Native
Digital Natives
Yes our students are absolutely Digital Natives.
Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.
Todays “ students have not just changed incrementally from those of the past, nor simply changed their slang, clothes, body adornments, or styles, as has happened between generations previously. A really big discontinuity has taken place
Today‟s students through college – represent the first generations to grow up with this new technology. They have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age.
It is now clear that todays students think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors. These differences go far further and deeper than most educators suspect or realize. “Different kinds of experiences lead to different brain structures, “ says Dr. Bruce D. Perry of Baylor College of Medicine. As we shall see in the next installment, it is very likely that our students’ brains have physically changed – and are different from ours – as a result of how they grew up. But whether or not this is literally true, we can say with certainty that their thinking patterns have changed.
What should we call these “new” students of today? Some refer to them as the N-[for Net]-gen or D-[for digital]-gen. But the most useful designation found for them is Digital Natives. Our students today are all “native speakers” of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet.
Digital Natives are used to receiving information really fast. They like to parallel process and multi-task. They prefer their graphics before their text rather than the opposite. They prefer random access (like hypertext). They function best when networked. They thrive on instant gratification and frequent rewards. They prefer games to “serious” work. (Marc Prensky Digital Natives Digital Immigrants ©2001 Marc Prensky )
Yes our students are absolutely Digital Natives.
Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.
Todays “ students have not just changed incrementally from those of the past, nor simply changed their slang, clothes, body adornments, or styles, as has happened between generations previously. A really big discontinuity has taken place
Today‟s students through college – represent the first generations to grow up with this new technology. They have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age.
It is now clear that todays students think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors. These differences go far further and deeper than most educators suspect or realize. “Different kinds of experiences lead to different brain structures, “ says Dr. Bruce D. Perry of Baylor College of Medicine. As we shall see in the next installment, it is very likely that our students’ brains have physically changed – and are different from ours – as a result of how they grew up. But whether or not this is literally true, we can say with certainty that their thinking patterns have changed.
What should we call these “new” students of today? Some refer to them as the N-[for Net]-gen or D-[for digital]-gen. But the most useful designation found for them is Digital Natives. Our students today are all “native speakers” of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet.
Digital Natives are used to receiving information really fast. They like to parallel process and multi-task. They prefer their graphics before their text rather than the opposite. They prefer random access (like hypertext). They function best when networked. They thrive on instant gratification and frequent rewards. They prefer games to “serious” work. (Marc Prensky Digital Natives Digital Immigrants ©2001 Marc Prensky )
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Does NET Help Children Learn?
NET and its importance in society is increasingly recognised. This is highlighted in a recent report.(Cook and Smith, 2002).
Although NET is challenging and requires instructors and learners to adapt, it can be an effective way to learn about concepts, and model the principles and ideology that are at the core of education..
In the past Education were delivered through traditional, in – classroom methods which allowed for interaction between the lecturer and the students. Now learning via the NET is available and can be the preferred choice of individuals. The intent of teaching via NET is to teach the concepts within an environment that model the ideology and principles, particularly high-level participation or engagement and empowerment.
NET offers new opportunities for both educators and learners to enrich their teaching and learning experiences, through virtual environments that support not just the delivery but also the exploration and application of information and the promotion of new knowledge.. NET enables learners to have as much choice as is practically and economically possible
NET emphases on the constructivist use of technologies which provides students with opportunities to construct their own understandings. Skinners’s behaviourism. Piaget’s cognitive constructivism and Vygotsky’s social constructivism can all be facilitated through NET Tam (2000)
The NET uses collaborative learning strategies which allows students to have a voice, to feel safe articulating fears and ideas and to learn collectively, critically and in consultation with teachers who are there to facilitate, challenge and guide students to take an active role in constructing knowledge.
.
In addition NET supports the achievement of the New Zealand curriculum by facilitating knowledge and skills acquisition During school years and beyond, learners will engage in endless opportunity to learn on their own. The use of NET will continue to evolve and there is a need to ensure that NET is adapted into our curriculum.
The NET today is the bedrock of the future. It promotes communication, fosters interaction, and is becoming an increasingly important entity in modern society. It provides us access to a lot of information and offers profound opportunities to exercise creativity. Yet looking ahead, it is but one milestone. Just in business today are finding the NET to be worthwhile and lucrative pursuit, I trust we educators will find the NET more and more rewarding in our mission to empower learners through learning.
Although NET is challenging and requires instructors and learners to adapt, it can be an effective way to learn about concepts, and model the principles and ideology that are at the core of education..
In the past Education were delivered through traditional, in – classroom methods which allowed for interaction between the lecturer and the students. Now learning via the NET is available and can be the preferred choice of individuals. The intent of teaching via NET is to teach the concepts within an environment that model the ideology and principles, particularly high-level participation or engagement and empowerment.
NET offers new opportunities for both educators and learners to enrich their teaching and learning experiences, through virtual environments that support not just the delivery but also the exploration and application of information and the promotion of new knowledge.. NET enables learners to have as much choice as is practically and economically possible
NET emphases on the constructivist use of technologies which provides students with opportunities to construct their own understandings. Skinners’s behaviourism. Piaget’s cognitive constructivism and Vygotsky’s social constructivism can all be facilitated through NET Tam (2000)
The NET uses collaborative learning strategies which allows students to have a voice, to feel safe articulating fears and ideas and to learn collectively, critically and in consultation with teachers who are there to facilitate, challenge and guide students to take an active role in constructing knowledge.
.
In addition NET supports the achievement of the New Zealand curriculum by facilitating knowledge and skills acquisition During school years and beyond, learners will engage in endless opportunity to learn on their own. The use of NET will continue to evolve and there is a need to ensure that NET is adapted into our curriculum.
The NET today is the bedrock of the future. It promotes communication, fosters interaction, and is becoming an increasingly important entity in modern society. It provides us access to a lot of information and offers profound opportunities to exercise creativity. Yet looking ahead, it is but one milestone. Just in business today are finding the NET to be worthwhile and lucrative pursuit, I trust we educators will find the NET more and more rewarding in our mission to empower learners through learning.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
The Place of NET in schools
Communication and the establishment of networks of learners and teachers is turning out to be one of the major benefits that NET can provide for education.
The technology itself is neutral. It can be used to deskill jobs, to fragment them and to increase routinisation and repetition. It can also be used to enhance them to provide more opportunities for the exercise of skill and responsibility.Jones (1980) - quoted in S. Dunn & V. Morgan, The Impact of the Computer on Education: a course for teachers (London, 1987)
It is up to schools and teachers to recognise the potential of developments in ICTs to affect learning experiences in a positive way. The most common way for ICTs to be implemented.
Electronic registration, word-processed worksheets, and e-mail, Powerpoint, skype, podcasting, presentations, wikis, blog are all examples of e-Learning in my school
An interesting study is reported upon in Education and Technology: reflections on computing in classrooms (1996). The ‘Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow’ initiative was evaluated retrospectively, with comments made upon how teachers adapted to the availability of reliable, plentiful technology in the classroom environment:
I have seen in my school teachers had taken the role of expert in the classroom. Some students quickly became more knowledgeable than both their peers and their teachers in using particular computer applications or hardware. Eventually, teachers not only accepted students’ expertise but capitalized on and expanded the roles of student experts in their classrooms, relinquishing their emphasis on teacher-directed activities. It has been discovered that students who had been perceived as slow or reluctant learners often blossomed when given an alternate means for displaying their abilities.I. Haymore Sandholtz & C. Ringstaff, ‘Teacher Change in Technology-Rich Classrooms’ (in C. Fisher, D.C. Dwyer & K. Yocam (eds.), Education and Technology: reflections on computing in classrooms (San Francisco, 1996), p.283-4
This, I think, is the potential of ICTs: the ability to balance structured and unstructured learning experiences. The ability to be able to record and research within a Personal Learning Environment whilst having the freedom to work in different ways and the authority to share one’s findings with others. ICTs, as Robinson (1997)B. Robinson, ‘Getting Ready to Change: the place of change theory in the information technology education of teachers’ (in D. Passey & B. Samways (eds.), Information Technology: supporting change through teacher education (London, 1997), p.41 states, ‘poses an enormous, possibly unique, challenge as a resource to the teacher because its use demands considerable shifts on all fronts.’ It is up to us to make sure that we embrace new ways of working and opportunities to allow pupils to learn in different ways, even if it means a shift in the traditional authority of the teacher as the fount of all knowledge.
An important use of technology is its capacity to create new opportunities for curriculum and instruction by bringing real-world into the classroom for students to explore and solve. Technology can help create an active environment in which students not only solve problems, but also find their own problems.J.D. Bransford, A.L. Brown, R.R. Cocking (eds.), How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School (Washington D.C., 1999), p.195
The Google Earth type viewers
contribute to many pupils’ understanding of the inter connection of places, including to a sense of
their place in the world. The most common activity of anyone using Google Earth for the first time
is to go straight to their own home, an activity which can be enlightening, upon discovery that the
home area is actually more wooded, or crammed with houses, or near a factory than realised.
From personal experience it led me to discover, after several years, a local park ten minutes walk.from my home. Children love seeing their homes on the internet.
The contribution of Google Earth and similar viewers which create virtual worlds
for pupils to explore.
The potential of ICTs to change learning experiences should not be constrained by the mind of the inventor or, for that matter, the teacher!
If we’re interested in helping students develop and refine relevant literacy skills in the 21st century, we HAVE to be using digital tools and resources regularly in our classrooms and homes. Learning how to appropriately and effectively teach and learn with multimedia technologies should not be an option in our schools and classrooms.
We are all learners. We are all teachers.
The technology itself is neutral. It can be used to deskill jobs, to fragment them and to increase routinisation and repetition. It can also be used to enhance them to provide more opportunities for the exercise of skill and responsibility.Jones (1980) - quoted in S. Dunn & V. Morgan, The Impact of the Computer on Education: a course for teachers (London, 1987)
It is up to schools and teachers to recognise the potential of developments in ICTs to affect learning experiences in a positive way. The most common way for ICTs to be implemented.
Electronic registration, word-processed worksheets, and e-mail, Powerpoint, skype, podcasting, presentations, wikis, blog are all examples of e-Learning in my school
An interesting study is reported upon in Education and Technology: reflections on computing in classrooms (1996). The ‘Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow’ initiative was evaluated retrospectively, with comments made upon how teachers adapted to the availability of reliable, plentiful technology in the classroom environment:
I have seen in my school teachers had taken the role of expert in the classroom. Some students quickly became more knowledgeable than both their peers and their teachers in using particular computer applications or hardware. Eventually, teachers not only accepted students’ expertise but capitalized on and expanded the roles of student experts in their classrooms, relinquishing their emphasis on teacher-directed activities. It has been discovered that students who had been perceived as slow or reluctant learners often blossomed when given an alternate means for displaying their abilities.I. Haymore Sandholtz & C. Ringstaff, ‘Teacher Change in Technology-Rich Classrooms’ (in C. Fisher, D.C. Dwyer & K. Yocam (eds.), Education and Technology: reflections on computing in classrooms (San Francisco, 1996), p.283-4
This, I think, is the potential of ICTs: the ability to balance structured and unstructured learning experiences. The ability to be able to record and research within a Personal Learning Environment whilst having the freedom to work in different ways and the authority to share one’s findings with others. ICTs, as Robinson (1997)B. Robinson, ‘Getting Ready to Change: the place of change theory in the information technology education of teachers’ (in D. Passey & B. Samways (eds.), Information Technology: supporting change through teacher education (London, 1997), p.41 states, ‘poses an enormous, possibly unique, challenge as a resource to the teacher because its use demands considerable shifts on all fronts.’ It is up to us to make sure that we embrace new ways of working and opportunities to allow pupils to learn in different ways, even if it means a shift in the traditional authority of the teacher as the fount of all knowledge.
An important use of technology is its capacity to create new opportunities for curriculum and instruction by bringing real-world into the classroom for students to explore and solve. Technology can help create an active environment in which students not only solve problems, but also find their own problems.J.D. Bransford, A.L. Brown, R.R. Cocking (eds.), How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School (Washington D.C., 1999), p.195
The Google Earth type viewers
contribute to many pupils’ understanding of the inter connection of places, including to a sense of
their place in the world. The most common activity of anyone using Google Earth for the first time
is to go straight to their own home, an activity which can be enlightening, upon discovery that the
home area is actually more wooded, or crammed with houses, or near a factory than realised.
From personal experience it led me to discover, after several years, a local park ten minutes walk.from my home. Children love seeing their homes on the internet.
The contribution of Google Earth and similar viewers which create virtual worlds
for pupils to explore.
The potential of ICTs to change learning experiences should not be constrained by the mind of the inventor or, for that matter, the teacher!
If we’re interested in helping students develop and refine relevant literacy skills in the 21st century, we HAVE to be using digital tools and resources regularly in our classrooms and homes. Learning how to appropriately and effectively teach and learn with multimedia technologies should not be an option in our schools and classrooms.
We are all learners. We are all teachers.
Monday, August 4, 2008
examples of e-Learning
Last year in my class, we used digital camera to take photos of stories published by children on hard copy. We printed the photos and than produced a slide show. We copied the photos to the folder on our computer. We also put the photos on the disk with music in the background.
I was also involved with year six's podcasting using grageband.
children in my school also have Blog , Bebo, use e-mail, teachers use memo board, skype, video, internet, RSS
RSS Really Simple Syndication makes it possible to easily access content on the internet.
Blog provides news, observations, or commentary, on a subject. The entries in a blog are called "posts"
Podcasts are often likened to radio shows.
Wikis are older than blogand podcasts. Bolgs and wikis are infact, easy means to getting content published online, but their format and purpose differ.
The Read Write WEb today is the bedrock of the future. It promotes communication, fosters interaction, and is becoming an increasingly important.
I was also involved with year six's podcasting using grageband.
children in my school also have Blog , Bebo, use e-mail, teachers use memo board, skype, video, internet, RSS
RSS Really Simple Syndication makes it possible to easily access content on the internet.
Blog provides news, observations, or commentary, on a subject. The entries in a blog are called "posts"
Podcasts are often likened to radio shows.
Wikis are older than blogand podcasts. Bolgs and wikis are infact, easy means to getting content published online, but their format and purpose differ.
The Read Write WEb today is the bedrock of the future. It promotes communication, fosters interaction, and is becoming an increasingly important.
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