This week I read about some different learning theories. Some were familiar to me, such as behaviourism and social contructivism, but one was new, that of connectivism. What's connectivism? Connectivism is an attempt to come up with a learning theory for a digital age, with many learning theories developed before we had access to online learning tools. It has some key points:
Some of the principles reminded me of Vella's discussion of quantum thinking:'It is a shock for most of us to consider a universe composed of energy that is patterned and spontaneous, the certainty of uncertainty, “both/and” thinking, and the connectedness of everything.' (Vella, 2002, p.29) Digital storytelling This week we had the opportunity to work in a group to make a piece of digital content to discuss a learning theory that we chose. I worked with my classmate Mari to make a 'digital storybook' that helped to explain some of the theories in an accessible way. We used the website Storybird to create a picture book. This site provides access to illustrations by fantastic artists and the ability to easily construct a book that can be shared online. We chose an artist called Oya, who is a German and Turkish illustrator. If you'd like to see more of her art, you can find her profile on storybird here. I found this process to be fun and informative. There is a challenge involved by making an academic topic into a story book, because information has to be consolidated and written in a simple way. We also experimented with using dialogue between our two characters to give a sense of the real-life dialogue that we had around the subject. We also wanted to pose the reader some questions, which we did in a playful way at the end of the story. I like this format because I don't believe adult learning always has to be serious, and it's nice to have some fun while you learn! The platform of Storybird might not work for everyone, and it was a little limiting in that the user has to stick to only one set of pictures, and you do not get much choice in fonts or have the chance to use any other creative styles (animations, hyperlinks etc.). But as a traditional story-telling format it works well, and the selection of art is great. You can find our story here. References
Bell, F. (2011). Connectivism: Its place in theory-informed research and innovation in technology-enabled learning. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 12(3), 98-118. Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 2(1), 3-10. Vella, J., (2002). Learning to listen, learning to teach: the power of dialogue in educating adults. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
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LaurenI am an IMAESC student, English teacher and adult education researcher from the UK. Categories
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