This Weeks Overview

Connectivism Wordle

Important Ideas for The Week – What about the kids?  It’s just a course?

The readings this week got me thinking about the future, what will it look like for these kids I’m teaching.  So I think this idea of slowly changing the way we work so that we can better understand things like Transmedia Navigation is really important.  We won’t figure out how we can best equip young students with the right skills for this kind of participation until we understand it ourselves.  We won’t understand it ourselves unless we participate.  Hence why I am involved in the course.  So I wrote a post on the blog where I wear the hat of Primary School Teacher to generate some discussion over there.

Stephen’s remark that things that are most course like – for example everyone descending on the course at the same time – feel the least natural.  This really resonates and yet I don’t feel really connected to the idea of Personal Learning Networks either.  The great thing about a course is that everyone does come together at the same time, it is also a pain.

From my internet I want the extremes either the pushing the envelope thinking or the connection to the mundane everyday of everyone else.  So I think one of the reasons that I’m really paying attention this time is that I receive a regular email from Dave Pollard and I always find him to be a good anchor.   He provides the pushing the envelope thinking so if he’s listening I’m listening along also, and he is listening.  My next step is to find someone who I can connect with who is providing the mundane Aussie perspective – connectivism in everyday life.  I think that with a theory like this it’s what you do everyday a little bit that will be where the rubber meets the road.  This is not simple and it’s not just about Twitter.

Question of The Week

• In the broader social context how can we construct an environment that motivates a variety of users to contribute so that any idea of ‘truth‘ is at least somewhat representative of the community in which it is being analysed?