Blog Post #6

So I watched Networked Student by Wendy Drexler. It is a video about Connectivism, which is a theory that learning occurs as part of a social network of many diverse connections and ties. In Connectivism, there is no textbook. A student would simply find many viable resources on the web and organize them into his own textbook, which will eventually develop into his "personal learning network". A student of Connectivism takes advantage of many technological tools such as mp3 players, Google Scholar, RSS feeds, and url-sharing sites such as Delicious.

Nearing the end of the video, we are asked, "Why does the networked student even need a teacher?" The answer is clear and simple. The student still needs to be led in the right direction. I'm sure that a student that just jumps right into it without being educated about which sites are valid would use many sites that could be unreliable or biased. Students still need to be shown how to find and use the vast supply of technology-based tools, so there is still a strong need for an educated teacher in Connectivism.

Now, do I think this method of learning could work? Sure! This method could be a very efficient method of teaching, in my opinion. The only downside I see is this (again, opinion) - for the most part, students can be incredibly lazy. Connectivism seems to be made for a student that is self-driven and probably didn't need a teacher in the first place to succeed. I can see it being very difficult to get students to add to and develop their PLN outside of the classroom. Also, it seems that it would be absolutely essential for a student to have moderately fast internet access at the home, and some students and their families simply cannot fit it into their budget. Besides, these two drawbacks, I think that Connectivism could be highly successful!

Afterwards, I watched Welcome to my PLE, and it is a video about a young girl's PLN, or personal learning network. I have to say that her PLN is far more advanced than mine. I really have not even heard of most of these internet tools until Dr. Strange's class, and obviously, she is being taught this at an early stage. I still plan to develop my PLN however, and I aspire to have a great PLN like this young girl.