Blog Post #7

The Networked Student

I've always wondered why online classes had instructors. This was before I had even taken an exclusively online course. When I enrolled in my first one, which was my public speaking requirement, I realized that without an instructor, I would have no idea what to do. Everything can't be taught through written instruction and even if that is somehow sufficient, students will always have questions. In this video, I find it interesting how online learning is portrayed.

Most people think it's a course in which you succeed by "going through the motions" where little thinking is involved. This is definitely not true. I find some of them to be harder than most courses taught in a classroom because there is a lot of self-learning involved. By this I mean that students must put everything they can into understanding and completing assignments because the majority of the instructions are written out instead of being verbalized and temporarily absorbed.

In EDM 310, I have found that reading the detailed instructions over and over again causes me to remember how to do certain things permanently. It takes several times before I have an assignment memorized so I won't have to switch back and forth when trying to accomplish each project. In doing so, things have stuck. I agree with the idea of connectivism.

Connectivism is a type of learning that occurs as part of a social network of many diverse connections and ties.This type of learning helps students to connect with others and take control of their education. In turn, they strengthen the learning process. Over time, the student in this video builds his blog and adds topics he has researched. His blog slowly became a source for information and opinion on his topic of study. Others could then go to his blog for facts or other information and have access to a different perspective.

 So the big question: Why does he even need a teacher? She is the one who teaches him how to build this network and take advantage of learning opportunities. She offers guidance when he gets stuck and shows him hot to communicate properly and respectfully to get help with experts. She also helps differentiate between real information and propaganda.



7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment


Her PLE was similar to my PLN. I chose Symbaloo to create my PLN because I like having everything out in front of me. Some of my tiles are school related and others are sites I visit everyday unrelated to class. I have all of class assignments and class relevant sites in the top, left-hand corner. I know exactly what icon to hit and I do not have to go through the steps of bookmarking or pulling up my favorites. I organize my tiles based on what they represent. I try to cluster relevant tiles together so I can access them quickly. I am always adding to my PLN. It makes schoolwork easier and much faster because I can get what I need at the click of a button. I will have this PLN as I long as I can.