when information and interaction change

When Information and Interaction Change

Canadian Defence Academy

George SiemensMarch 27, 2008

1. Information2. Abundance=new approach3. Knowing and sense making4. Networks5. Impact

1. Information2. Abundance=new approach3. Knowing and sense making4. Networks5. Impact

Information: Currency and barometer of humanity’s

progress

What happens when something of a primary nature changes?

We are defined by our interaction with information

Our interaction with information is defined by how we are connected to others

The gatekeepers

Institutions

Curriculum designers, educators

Assume to know what learners will need later

We fundamentally relate to information differently

Not created by select few

Learn lesson from news, media, music industry

Not controlled by select few

Learn lessons from PR, marketing, and politics

1. Information2. Abundance=new approach3. Knowing and sense making4. Networks5. Impact

Growth of information & changed interaction with information

Not possible on our own

Not possible with centralized model

Participatory sense making

Our world makes sense through our interactions with information and others

....(and in turn, their interactions with information and others)

Requires new approaches to making sense of abundance

“Significant attainments become lost in the mass of the inconsequential”

Vannevar Bush, 1945

Associative trails between information

Associative trails between people

1. Information2. Abundance=new approach3. Knowing and sense making4. Networks5. Impact

Information becomes knowledge through connections

What is known is a function of how it’s connected/related to other known

elements

What is known is known by its context

A play or movie

Suitability or inappropriateness: not inherent...function of context

Educators foster (direct) the formation of connections

Social processes are a form of cognitionSalomon, xiv

Distributed cognition: thinking in networks

Are our institutions designed for this?

NO

By design, today’s institutions & systems serve to handle information

of a different nature

1. Information2. Abundance=new approach3. Knowing and sense making4. Networks5. Impact

Let’s talk networks

Connectivism

Knowledge is held distributed within a network

Competence/learning occurs through network creation

Technology performs “grunt cognition”

Capacity to stay current

“Knowing where/who”

Sense-making/pattern recognition

What do we mean when we say learning occurs in networks?

Neural

Conceptual

t

Information & social networks

What then are important learning activities?

Creating a network to provide information when needed

Develop skills and mindsets to create this network

Social, technological, automatic (bots)

1. Information2. Abundance=new approach3. Knowing and sense making4. Networks5. Impact

What does this mean to learning design?

What about teaching/training?

Systemic changes

Openness

How we teach

How we determine content

Look at information life cycle – institutions need to be aware of points of production

Systemic changes

Technology for finding meaningful content (right now finding happens in social networks)

How we package content

How we accredit learning

Practicality?

Early stages

But already established trends

Networked learning is the path forward...as long as current information trends continue

www.elearnspace.orgwww.connectivism.ca

www.knowingknowledge.com

Contact: gsiemens AT elearnspace DOT org