Friday, September 28, 2012

Why am I just learning about this now?!

I am taking a few other courses through SUNY and this week it seems they all relate heavily to the concept of connectivism. I am reading a few books but two in particular specifically talk about the way education has been constructed and designed... and why it is not working. Both books talk about the importance of making connections in learning and working with people to create new ideas, about learning together vs learning individually. I feel like I've been living under a rock?!

One of the books I am reading is called Asking the Right Questions by M. Neil Brown and Stewart M. Keeley. The book is about independent learning and it talks about different learning styles. One of them is called the "sponge approach" which is what I did through out grade school. My teacher gave us a book and I accepted most of what they said and what I read in the books to be true. The other approach is called "panning for gold" ....pretty much another explanation for a MOOC! It's about being given information on certain subjects but actively engaging in the information you choose and questioning it and talking about it with other people to come to your own informed conclusions.

The book also talks about "the myth of the 'right' answer" and includes lots of information on how to "ask the right questions" and get involved in learning and share it with other people. It's a really good, easy read so far; I definitely recommend it.

The other book I'm reading is called Signs by Arthur Asa Berger. In chapter 25 of this book Berger discusses codes and social codes. He said that people want to resist being "programmed" and their choices about freedom and in terms of education, this also reminded me of a MOOC.  Berger says:

"When people talk about being programmed, then it is not so much that they resent having certain programs inflicted on them. What they want is a choice of programs or some kind of program that allows self-determination, freedom, choice, openness- a program that is not restrictive and does not intrude upon them. This may be an impossible dream, beyond the capacity of any of our computer designers or programmers, but it is an ideal that is very much in people's minds. Now it may be that some degree of randomness is a part of every program or can be designed into societies, so this dream of freedom and autonomy is more nearly aittainable. I do not know whether it is possible, or where the line between an open-ended nonintrusive program ends and chaos begins."

.....Pretty interesting text to think about!!

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Week 3 Wayfinding



I'm starting to get more comfortable with the layout of the MOOC. I like learning about all the new information each week and picking and choosing sort of what fits on the path I'm taking. I like the concept of wayfinding. I found some pretty cool videos on youtube that I posted on my twitter. I'm definitely a visual learner so that video made sense to me. I guess at this point the layout or lack there of makes more sense to me... but connecting to people and seeing what other people are doing is still a little bit of a challenge but then again its all new so I'm sure I'll get it in time.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Connectivism creates...

I watched the video interview with George Siemens this week where they discussed the idea of connectivism among a lot of other topics. I thought it was a pretty interesting interview considering the idea of connectivism is brand new to me. Siemens talked about the important of transitioning our thinking about learning and knowledge to one that is based on connections. This type of learning promotes growth and development in participants and emphasizes the primacy of connection. I definitely agree with the fact that emphasizes the importance and primacy of connecting with other people, a lot of people.

Seimens also talked about the words complicated and complex. I thought this was an interesting part of his interview because I've never personally thought about the difference between the two. He said that something complicated would be like a puzzle that is not put together, but it has all the pieces. Something complex would be like the weather, something we cannot predict.

I feel like traditional education then is complicated. Traditionally we are on a linear learning path being taught one subject, with one book, by one person. Though the teachers and books are different, it is generally the same process in this country (United States) throughout elementary and high school. We have all the pieces of the puzzle we need and we know the ultimate goal, to graduate. Where is the focus on learning style in that equation? The missing piece of the puzzle...

Connectivism then is complex. It is unpredictable in that you don't know who will participate in what discussion, you can't predict what people will say in most environments, but especially in a nontraditional online course. Also you never know what direction the course itself will go. I'm sure every time this course is taught, the materials are the same but the discussions are vastly different; what topics people focus on depends on the connections people make. Connections create discussions, discussions create open education... opening your mind to learn new things from a lot of new people.

Monday, September 17, 2012

CMC11 Article (Sparked New Ideas)


This week, I started to read the article Multicultural Experience & Creativity.  I read the first five pages and decided that I would take a break from the article where the Empirical Evidence section began. Although I will eventually finish the article, the first five pages contained a lot of information to digest.  The paragraph on the second page was about the four different conclusions the authors came to and the one I found particularly interesting was conclusion (c):

Individual differences that account for whether people adapt and open themselves to foreign cultures and actively think about and compare the differences they en- counter between their home culture and the foreign culture can boost the creative benefits of multicultural experience
(Ka-yee Leung, et al, 2)
This interested me because it makes complete sense but I wanted to see all the reasons they came to this as one of the conclusions, which the authors did in the next few pages. From what I learned, it seems like a multicultural experience and how much it affects a person, depends on how much a person wants it to affect them and WHY they want to be affected. The quote on page three summed this up by saying “Individuals who pursue tasks for intrinsic rather than extrinsic purposes show enhanced creativity.”
This quote could be an article on itself. How do intrinsic or extrinsic purposes affect a person’s multi-cultural experience? I have never thought about this question before but I think it is something notable to talk about. I’ve always wanted to go to Africa to visit and volunteer in wildlife sanctuaries, not because I want to learn more about African culture but because that is where the animals I am interested in live. That is not to say that I wouldn’t be open to learning more about African culture; I am open and interested in learning about any culture. I am just pointing out that that wouldn’t be my main purpose for going there, so that would affect my cultural experience. This opened my eyes and made me think about the places I want to go, what I will gain from them, and why I want to go there.
Aside from one of the conclusions, another interesting point that was discussed was about the effects of being exposed to only one culture. Like growing up in this country; American’s for the most part have their routines, their own ideals and beliefs, and they pass that from generation to generation. I don’t think it is necessary to have to travel everywhere to become more culturally educated. Of course there is no substitute than actually immersing yourself in culture of whatever given country but just having that little spark of interest in another culture can lead to a lot of exploration and knowledge, which could further spark a new type of creativity that a person didn’t even know they had.

Friday, September 14, 2012

New MOOCer

Hi Everyone,

The term has just begun and I am already learning so much. I am just beginning the readings for this week but wanted to make my first blog entry to let everyone know where to find where most of my reflections or other comments will primarily be posted! Hopefully I get the hang of this soon and I look forward to working with so many new people.

Best!

Richele