Deliberations

George Siemens and Stephen Downes are running facilitating a 12-week, massive open online course (MOOC) about Connectivism and Connected Knowledge. This is a for-credit offering at University of Manitoba. Incredibly, over 2100 people from around the world registered and are taking part. I'm not one of those registered, as I've already been looking at their thesis for quite a while. It is a paradigmic approach to knowledge and learning (some would say a theory, but I'll avoid that scientifist trap). Most people view knowledge in one of two paradigmic ways. First, as objective stuff to be acquired, stored, gained, transferred, distributed, etc. Second, as action depicted in skills, performance, problem-solving and professional identity. Connectivism articulates a third paradigm, locating knowledge in the relationships that we have with each other and objective resources. Knowledge is the network. Knowledge is rhizomatic (multiple entry points, rather than hierarchic) and fractal (portrayed at the social and neural levels). A Connectivist approach relieves us of the necessity of knowing and controlling everything. Instead, we focus on accessing and building knowledge in real time as part of life. Learning is rendered as adaptation to change through network building. We already do this: when we need a water pipe fixed, we delegate that job (both the facts about it and the skill to fix it) to a plumber. The Connectivist approach is aided by technology that mediates access to the network (eg. online services, the Yellow Pages). Unfortunately, some live in a flat world that still embraces behaviourism and the authority of classroom education. George and Stephen were accused of foisting some sort of anti-liberal agenda to collectivise the world. What is shocking is that the diatribe, like so much invective posting in online political fora, comes without deep reading of the thesis. A close inspection would reveal that both George and Stephen are interested in helping individuals be constructively critical and reflective, if nothing else. Of course their mission is emancipatory, but it is shocking to find some reacting as if ideological doctrine is being thrust upon them. On the contrary, George and Stephen promote a plurality of worldviews. Many people, especially older people, still believe that learning only occurs in classrooms. Now they know what they know and that is all there is to it. The Connectivist approach treats knowledge as tentative, lifewide and socially constructed, and less tied to identity. For some, this is a disconcerting prospect. George and Stephen present Connectivism in the context of education. But I think they have actually found a basis for a social and political perspective that bridges the communitarian (ie. social group) and liberal (ie. individual) divide. We are autonomous nodes in a loosely-connected and dynamic network. The MOOC is an example of pedagogy that is consistent with Connectivism. While George and Stephen have much to say to the subscribers, it is in the diversity of the connections and their interplay where the real value of the course is found. In my opinion, if we are going find solutions to the Big Problems of Our Times, the Connectivist approach provides a path to common ground instead of perpetuating the defensive silos and polarisation that are so typical.

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Posted by Ron Lubensky on 13 September 2008 at 01:23 PM | Link