The Brass Ring

Today I signed up to take an on-line course introducing Connectivism with George Siemens and Stephen Downes through the University of Manitoba. This should be an interesting journey. They have already warned us that the first weeks are filled with overwhelming newness  and some confusion as all the tools of Web 2.0 are unleashed at once. Initially, Connectivism means to me that we are trying to lay a overlay of meaning to all the seeming chaotic interplay of interactive technologies. Phone texting, calls, and Facebook wall notes compete with normal email, blogs, youTube videos and the face-to-face events of life. What does all this mean? It seems that this huge expansion has happened in just the last 2-3 years for many of us.

Several levels of questions:

1. How does this help people learn?
2. Is there an educational philosophy somewhere in there?
3. What is the relationship between Connectivism and other meta understandings in education like Understanding by Design (Wiggins/McTighe) or Dimensions (Marzanno)?
4. What might be institutional implications for such thinking particularly in education?
5.  How might this mesh with the one laptop per child scenario both in the developed as well as the developing world?

Looks to be exciting.