Social Learning and Connectivism Theory based Learning strategies

from College of Education website

In previous posts, I tried to explain behaviorism, cognitive theory and constructionist theory. In summary, behaviorism focuses on actions of a human being and believes that the human mind is too complex. As a result, behaviorists treat human like animals and develop learning strategies that include motivation, punishment, award and practice. Cognitive theory focuses on the human mind and suggests that we can understand how brain works. Cognitive theory states that the human brain works like a computer, and develop learning strategies accordingly with focusing on information processing. Constructivist theory says that people learn by construction and making things. According to this theory; there is no common knowledge, and everybody must create their own form of knowledge. Constructionist theory advice student centered learning strategies that ease students to create their own knowledge (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010).

Social Learning from youtube

Theories mentioned above belong to 19th and 20th century. 21st century is completely different, and kindergarteners are using technological devices that were just dreams 20 years ago. The biggest difference between yesterday’s world and today’s world is in the communication area. Pigeons and horses are long gone, and snail mail is dying. It takes a minute or less to send a message to any corner of the world. Moreover, one can watch African Sahara live from Alaska. What I am trying to say is; the world is connected. We are connected to each other via cell phones, Internet radio and TV, and information is connected via websites and digital libraries. In other words, knowledge is networked, and today’s people learn with navigating networked knowledge (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010), and communicating with each other. Therefore, there should be a new learning theory that includes navigation based learning and communication based learning.

Albert Bandura, Social Learning and his Bobo Doll experiment from youtube

The first theory that included communication technology is social learning theory of Bandura (click here for his biography). Bandura researched about the effects of TV, and TV commercials and he found out that watching TV affects the actions of children. In his theory, Bandura (Boeree, 2006) stated that people learn with following attention, retention, reproduction and motivation steps. In short, people must pay attention to learn new information. Second, people must remember that they paid attention to an action or information. Third, people must try to reproduce and model the action that they observed, and finally, they must have motivation will to imitate the action.

George Siemens - Connectivism: Socializing Open Learning from youtube

Recently, George Siemens (click here for his biography) developed connectivism theory to explain the effect of networked knowledge on learning. Siemens (Davis, Edmunds, & Kelly-Bateman, 2008) defined his new connectivisim theory with following sentences:

“Connectivism is driven by the understanding that decisions are based on rapidly altering foundations. New information is continually being acquired, and the ability to draw distinctions between important and unimportant information is vital. Also, critical is the ability to recognize when new information alters the landscape based on decisions made yesterday.”

Siemens (2005) also stated the principles of connectivism such as “learning and knowledge rest in diversity of opinions.” And “ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.” For detailed information, you may visit http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Jan_05/article01.htm or his website http://www.connectivism.ca/.

Connectivism and Technology from youtube

As a teacher, I am interested in applications and strategies based on learning theory rather than the learning theory alone. As I stated above, technology provide us new education tools, and one can develop new teaching strategies and methods with using those tools such as social networking and internet.

Cooperative Learning from youtube

One of the strategies that include social learning and connectivism is cooperative learning. In this strategy, students should be grouped according to their ability levels, group size should be small, and should include other classroom structures (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). In cooperative learning strategy, students required to work in groups, communicate with others and observe other group members. Therefore, this strategy includes social learning theory, because everybody observe each other, and connectivisim because group members share their knowledge. Thanks to technology, teachers can choose group members from all over the world, and one student can work together with a student from another school form another part of the world on the same project. As a result, student groups can work on the same project from different locations with using shared calendar, shared documents, and wiki pages. Additionally, students can communicate with each other with email, cellphone and other communication tools. Students can share their projects with creating their web spaces and wikispaces.

Jigsaw groupwork for cooperative learning from youtube

In conclusion, technology and internet opened a wide window for us to develop new strategies, and as teachers, we must work hard to learn and use new technology tools. Web 2.0 tools such as wiki, blogs, podcasts, facebook and other social networking tools are great tools to start new cooperative learning strategies.

For more information about connectivisim learning theory and its applications, you may click here and here. 

References

Boeree, C. (2006). Personal Theories Albert Bandura. Retrieved from Shippensburg University Web site: http:/​/​webspace.ship.edu/​cgboer/​bandura.html

Davis, C, Edmunds, E, & Kelly-Bateman, V. (2008). Connectivism. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved <insert date>, from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Program nine. Connectivism as a learning theory [Webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroominstruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD

Siemens, G. (2005, January). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. International Journal of Instructional Technology & Distance Learning, Retrieved from http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Jan_05/article01.htm