Last week, my students and I explored readings relating to “theories of learning in the digital age.” Specifically, we explored connectivism, rhizomatic education, and social network knowledge construction (links to readings appear below). To tie the readings with our experiences as learners/educators, to contemporary developments in the field, and to our shared understanding of what these really mean, we formed groups and designed our own learning theories. (and, hey, why not, everyone’s creating theories/models/approaches/frameworks so why not do it within a matter of an hour to demonstrate that the “theory development” part is the easy part of the process :) )

I was glad to see deep reflection on the readings and questioning of these approaches to education. While both myself (and most of my students) seem to espouse a socio-constructivist view to learning, I was happy to see a true engagement with the readings in an attempt to understand what they are offering, while at the same time rejecting the pie-in-the-sky view of learning, as evidenced by this post for example.

References
Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age, International Journal of Instructional Technology & Distance Learning, 2(1): http://www.itdl.org/journal/jan_05/article01.htm
Kop, R., & Hill, A. (2008). Connectivism: Learning theory of the future or vestige of the past?. The International Review Of Research In Open And Distance Learning, 9(3). Retrieved November 7, 2009, from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/523/1103
Cormier, D. (2008). Rhizomatic education: Community as curriculum. Innovate 4 (5). http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=550 (free sign-up required)
Dawley, L. (2009). Social network knowledge construction: Emerging virtual world pedadogy. On The Horizon 17(2), 109-121. http://edtech.boisestate.edu/ldawley/SNKC_pdf.pdf