Saturday, February 18, 2012

A learner is like a...


  To me, a learner is like a passenger, who is traveling on a train and when the train has arrived its destination, the passenger took off the train and switch to another train, and the train system is extensive and convenient and the train system could take the passenger anywhere at anytime.

  I've learned a little about sociolinguistics and I read about Vygotsky's theory about language learning occurs on two planes, one is inter-relationship and the other is intra-relationship; Learning is not only about the learner himself, but is also occurring between one and the other person. When I read the article "Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age", it is not that unfamiliar to me, because I know that "One of the most persuasive factors is the shrinking half-life of knowledge. The “half-life of knowledge” is the time span from when knowledge is gained to when it becomes obsolete." Connectivism deepen and strengthen my knowledge of nowadays learning.

  Indeed, "In a knowledge economy, the flow of information is the equivalent of the oil pipe in an industrial economy." And truly, today's knowledge is no longer life-time knowledge. Today's knowledge is half-life of knowledge and "When knowledge is gained to when it becomes obsolete."

  I think to take this online course is not about learning the knowledge of how to integrate online technologies into our teaching, but it is about how to apply this Internet knowledge into facilitating the gaining of our knowledge and our students' knowledge. Just as the video "The Conflict of Learning Theories with Human Nature" says, "To focus less on try to bring knowledge into the mind of a person and more on developing the skills of our learners".

* Click on the high-lighted sentences and you will go to the website links of the related content.



1 comment:

Maryanne said...

I like your idea that the passenger can take a train to anywhere at anytime since that parallels what learners can do. The only aspect of Connectivism that you didn't describe is how the learner's journey by train or by Internet affects the rest of the network.