Thursday, October 4, 2012

Learning Connections

This week in class we were asked to think about our learning connections. Personally, I interpreted this as the learning connections in all aspects in my life because truthfully, I am still learning in all aspects of my life (aren't we all?). So, here is my mind map that lists my learning networks as well as demonstrate how they interconnect between aspects of my life. I may have gotten carried away but I was getting into it!

My networks have changed the way I learn by providing ideas, thoughts, concepts, etc that I would have never thought of myself. For example, in class at Walden we are asked to discuss topics in an online forum. Several times I have been happy that we are asked to do this assignment because other classmates bring up things from the reading or their own personal experiences that I would have never thought of or bring new insight to my paradigm. I think it enriches my thinking and quality of my understanding.

As you may notice, a lot of my networks are online networks. I think that these provide access to an unlimited amount of information, opinions, experiences, thoughts, individuals to answer literally any question you may have about anything. I find the online resources that you can collaborate with the most helpful and the best way to learn. For example, both Walden's "Blackboard" as well as the NAAE Communities of Practice website allow users to post questions, get answers, and search for helpful information. These collaborative experiences have proved very useful in my educational career as well as my teaching career.

This is also how I gain new information. I set out to find it either by asking the question online, calling a personal contact, or searching for the answer that someone has already formulated. Personally, I prefer to have the instant success of finding my answer online immediately and putting my new knowledge into application right away.

My philosophy of networks and new ways of learning support connectivism because of I like to others in many different forms in order to learn. I draw from others ideas, thoughts, experiences and opinions in order to form my own. Using this theory, I can also see the connection between things and how they all relate to make up the world that I currently know. This is another tenent of connectivism.


Mindmap was made with bubbl.us.











No comments:

Post a Comment