Blog Post 6

The Networked Student is a video that depicts a student's work in a high school Psychology class that adheres to the principles of connectivism. The video discusses in great length the approach that this particular class uses to give students a new way to learn. This particular student was very successful in the class, and he was able to develop a personal learning network that included a Dutch filmmaker and some top professors across the country. He was able to develop methods of learning to help him in this particular class and the future.

This video made some interesting points, which attempt to convince the audience that books and lecturing are essentially obsolete in today's rapidly changing world. I agree that a great deal of learning today is done independently, and some of the techniques in this class could aid in that. Lecturing directly out of the book does not seem to be the best way to inform students in our fast paced society, but I don't believe that relying on technology exclusively is ideal either. It requires a mix of the two to keep students engaged and to accomplish a goal of teaching skills as well as actual knowledge to young people.

There were a couple of problems that I found with the video that should cause some hesitation with relying solely on this method of teaching. First of all, the video only explains the success of one single student with this method. I have a hard time believing that keeping ninety high school students motivated is as easy as handing them a computer and gently guiding them. Many students may not respond nearly as well to these methods as the one in the video. I also believe books and actual, physical manifestations of work are an important part of learning especially in English classes, which I will be teaching.

The Teach Web Blog shares some concerns with the connectivism approach discussed in The Networked Student. Several obstacles that are mentioned are also concerns that I had with the idea. One of the main concerns that I didn't really consider was the amount of time it would take to teach all the skills necessary for the connectivism approach. All that information has to be taught and mastered before any of the class subject can be taught, and this could cause the entire class to be put behind by days of even weeks.

Welcome to My PLE is a video describing another seventh grader's learning experience with the connectivism approach. She details the ways in which she developed a personal page with all of her materials for the science class she was taking. She also talks a great deal about how the class works and some of the interesting things she was able to accomplish because of the class setup.

I thought the video highlighted some good things about this approach to learning, but I also still have some questions. It was obvious that this particular girl became engaged and motivated, and she took what she learned and used it to gain more knowledge. This domino effect of learning is probably the most beneficial part of teaching certain subjects this way. The main question I would have is how typical these types of results are. I also saw some similarities in what she was doing in her science class and what we are trying to accomplish in EDM 310. Her personal learning network helped her to expand her knowledge beyond the scope of the class, and hopefully ours will do the same.