Connectivism – Mapping Knowledge Acquisition
Learning occurs in many different settings and through many different interactions, some formal and intentional, others informal and by coincidence. If one considers the people, places, and things with which they interact throughout their day, it is possible to build an abstract map of how those sources contribute to your acquisition of knowledge. Below is one such “mind map.”
Reflection
The principles of Connectivism help explain the learning process for many people but I am not one of them: I do not find much in the theory of Connectivism applicable to what motivates me to learn or how I learn.
This mind map fairly represents the network that provides me information and support. And I use all of the elements at different times to obtain information, which I suppose could be considered learning. For example, if I need to know how to do something, or need an answer to a question, I will reach out to or engage some aspect of my network and acquire what I need. As for technologies, the primary technology I use to acquire information is email, which I use to contact people and ask questions. I also use the telephone to call people. More frequently, I use Google and the web to research my issue. For example, I needed to know how to change the cabin air filter in my car – it’s not explained anywhere in the manual. In one Google search, I had a half-dozen YouTube videos that showed how to do it.
I cannot say that my network has changed the way I learn other than the majority of new information I acquire comes to me in digital form rather than by reading hard-copy media like books, journals, and magazines. It used to be that things like a textbook had their greatest value because somebody went to the trouble to research, collate, arrange, synthesize, and present information on a particular topic. Doing those things was not feasible for most students due to a couple of reasons. First, students new to a topic didn’t have sufficient information to even know what to research. Second, even if somebody had enough background to do further research, it was infeasible to hit the stacks in the library.
But today, if you have a good idea of what you’re looking for, you can find almost anything on the Internet and it’s often well-explained. One recent example for me was when I was working through my statistics courses. We had textbooks and they were pretty good. But still, I had questions. I could email the professor but I may not get a response in time for what I needed. Or, my question may not have been precise and so we waste time going back and forth with each other. That is not efficient. Alternatively, and what I almost always did, was run a Google search and find what I needed. At one point, I was really stuck and I considered hiring a tutor for the one topic. Again, I ran a search and discovered something new: Bona fide, online tutoring sites that connect you with live tutors in your subject in your area. It’s like an “Angie’s List” for tutors on any subject.
Just like a Google search, I sometimes ask someone in my network that knows more about it and usually they can explain or guide me to someone that can. But I do not think the way my personal network impacts my learning supports or refutes tenets of Connectivism. Like all the other theories we’ve studied, some aspects of it apply to all learners some of the time. For some learners, it explains more of how they learn than perhaps Behaviorism or another theory. But Connectivism does not fully explain any one person’s learning process.