Emotion and networked learning

There is a lot of research (from John Dewey onwards and probably even before) about the relationship between emotion and learning. The centrality of emotion to the process of learning is recognised. So it’s not surprising that so much emotion is evident in this course. What is surprising for me is the intensity of the emotion, [...]

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The structure of the course

Stephen and George started talking about this in the Ustream session on Friday. They have the interesting dilemma of trying to match the principles of connectivism with a course about connectivism. As SD said – the course needs some structure for it to exist at all – but as Dave Cormier asked, ‘Doesn’t a centralised course [...]

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Wisdom in the network

Will networks ever be stable enough to develop qualities such as wisdom? Could wisdom be a property of a network as a whole? It seems to me that wisdom relies on years of learning. Is there a place in networks for a quality such as wisdom. This came to me as I read an article in [...]

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‘If I’m well connected I’m more intelligent’

This was a statement by GS in Friday’s Ustream session. I’m not sure about this. I’ll have to think about it. Can being connected really be equated to intelligence in this way. I can see that ‘if i’m well connected I have access to more information’ follows, but does this necessarily lead to more intelligence. [...]

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The purpose of the forest

I’m still trying to get my head around what it is about connectivism as a learning theory that is different. Can’t put my finger on it, but something seems to be missing. I think its something to do with the status of people as individuals in the learning process and to do with learning as [...]

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Connectivism – a stumbling block?

I don’t think I have the skills needed for being well connected online (and probably offline too)! So for example, I cannot cope with the chat stream and listening to the speakers at the same time on Ustream. Today was frustrating from that point of view. The speakers were interesting, rambling a bit from time to [...]

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Are you a weak tie?

Here is another slide from Valdis Krebs presentation that caught my attention.
Email Clusters

There’s hope for lurkers, the inhibited, the shy, the intimidated and the lacking in confidence people here! This slide shows people with strong and frequent interactions /connections linked with the dark lines. But as the slide shows very clearly, without the weak ties [...]

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Do we have the full picture?

This was another interesting slide from Valdis Krebs

Here we have a view of what is going on behind the organisational hierarchy, i.e. the connections in the white space (grey lines) that are being made to get the job done.
So in this course, or in any course,

How much ‘back-channelling’ is going on?
How many people are making [...]

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Valdis Krebs on Networks

This was a great presentation – very engaging, although my head was physically hurting by the end – and well summarised here by Stephen Downes – http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/connectivism/?p=136
I think what I liked so much about it was that it was as if we were listening to a series of stories. I could relate to almost all [...]

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Blogs and forums

There has been some discussion about whether blogs or forums are better for connecting. I expect there is no right or wrong answer here – it will be a matter of personal choice. Personally I see the function of each as different.
As I see it, the forums are for asynchronous discussion between large or small [...]

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