George Siemens is Founder and President of Complexive Systems Inc., a research lab assisting organizations to develop integrated learning structures for global strategy execution. In 2006 he authored a book - Knowing Knowledge
(.pdf version available here)- an exploration of how the context and characteristics of knowledge have changed, and what it means to organizations today. In 2009, he published the Handbook of Emerging Technologies for Learning (.pdf version available here) with Peter Tittenberger.George is currently affiliated with the Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute (TEKRI) at Athabasca University. His role as a social media strategist involves planning, researching, and implementing social networked technologies, with focus on systemic impact and institutional change.
Prior to TEKRI, he was the Associate Director, Research and Development with the Learning Technologies Centre at University of Manitoba.
connectivism: his history on it - late 90's everyone had laptops but nothing really changed, some started to blog, social media would change how i would relate to students, years of playing w/blogs/wikis, found that his capacity to be intelligent depended on his relation to other people, meta level provided insight into what ed should be, stephen downes writing on same things, connective knowledge
assertion that knowledge is essentially networked, and we learn by growing our networks, the process of ed/learning can best be understood and changed by understanding how connections/ideas are formed, nation complexity - the solutions require a distributed approach - too complex to be handled by one person, at the end of the day - tech creates problems that only tech can solve. ie: the improvement in health that permitted humans to live longer, because of that increase of lifespan, we have problems with overpop, require greater fossil fuels, etc.
not providing kids/educators with a mindset - of working together
we might not value the process of working together, but we do value the bi-product of working together
steve asks - does this leave a shift in power (alzheimers study)
if you want the optimal amount of innovation and creativity you have to provide for the optimal amount for connectedness
social media tools - we have the appearance of power - but until we see those better integrated in ed systems, we aren't really cutting it
what needs to happen for the integration to take place (asked by steve) - pressing concern that approach of ed has to resolve, if we say ed system is broken, we need to define what will fix it, if you want to involve people - there has to be a trust in place... problem is - educators have different values than say parents.
we have to create a compelling story for what we need to fix.. no one is communicating that to the community with a sufficient degree of trust
his views - not tied to buzzwords, but we have to look at our ed system,
1) what is it that we can now do better with tech that we couldn't do 10 years ago (content broadcast - lecture once)
2) what will tech do in the future that it doesn't do now
content generation scales
1-1 interaction with student doesn't scale
(personally couldn't care if it's disruption or revolution or radical...)
what are the ideologies that still exist in classrooms, that tech does
what do we need to preserve
sees a dramatically different structure in the next 10 years
is it an effort in futility
at a certain level the grass roots falls - because of policy
while we are making an influence at a local level - but make sure that it can translate to individuals above this policy line
fighting revolutions don't work - find champions in admin/policy
business structure of web 2.0 is intriguing, but what are we smuggling in the back door
web 3.0
vicki davis video
we need to start thinking in connections not in networks
we have control in connections (with people and info)
will's post on linda darling not talking about tech
tech is not neutral, it determines your actions
personal learning networks and knowledge
any contrarian thinker - rather than highlight an author - let's highlight a mindset
(question about synergy) - resonance - when things fire off in my head - one piece of info literally lights up a ton of new connections
what causes one speaker/author to resonate with me
andrew hargadon - very interested in innovation
the problem isn't is this possible in hs
the real problem is - why isn't the system taking advantage of the distributed identity?
there's a lot of junk embedded in it... but this distributed means
making sense of info of distributed systems hasn't been brought into edhow do we achieve an intended outcome through a distributed system
how do we do that in something that we no longer have control
rethinking relationships with learners that tech enables
is there any value in strategic disconnection - ?
if you wish to grow in knowledge add something everyday
if you wish to grow in wisdom delete something everyday
all learning is elimination
not just about growing out networks but pruning them
had to leave 5 min early.. so missed end.
bravo and thanks steve and george
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