Connectivism

Connectivism sees learning resting outside of ourselves, focusing on connecting unique information sets, establishing connections that benefit the individual and the social connections that allow us to learn more as compared to the traditional teacher centred structure. Principles of Connectivism specifically developed by Siemens G (2005) looks at the impact of social software on learning, nurturing and maintaining connections to facilitate continual learning, information currency, ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts as core skill become required. The cycle of knowledge creation and development allows the student to learn through the connections they form on the web and interaction of others that facilitate authentic pedagogy approach to compliment the teachers effort.

There is conflict now with the learning theories established over 70 years ago, as students have an external thought to connect with others through dialogue and discovery to establish new learning networks through experts within Australia or internationally. These new discovery skills provide value to the individual over time by creating knowledge networks helps the individual stay current through nodes (people & databases).

Connectivism is applied to the modern world with the use of products such as social software that allows interaction and connects between individuals online using a sample of new websites that connect to the outside world through - MySpace, EduBlogs, IM, Wikispaces, Flickr, Facebook, [[file:///C:/Documents and Settings/hargism/Desktop/Literacy Mindmap.doc|Mindmaps]], and others to assist with learning online.