Another Connectivism Slide Show

Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age

Roy Pea on Distributed Intelligence

On Practices of Distributed Intelligence and Designs for Learning By Roy Pea

Intelligence is distributed across minds, people and environments. Over time people have shared ideas through conversation and the use of designs and tools, notes and books and most recently the computer. Theorist Vygotsky, Simon, and Gibson considered questions about the distribution of intelligence between the world and the mind to be fundamental. Activities such as social interaction distribute intelligence. Things such as microwave ovens, thermometers, and yardsticks carry intelligence within them and distributed intelligence is dependent on desires. Pea’s interested in distributed intelligence was derived from his observation of the use of technology. Pea notes that our activities change the world thus the changing the way the world can change us. With the use of technology changes are global and fast paced and the goal of education should be to educate on how to learn. Education should change from students sitting passively by while teachers feed them information to students taking an active role in their education.

PLE Reflection

After reviewing five different PLE’s I found the information about citation manager applications to be very informative. I will definitely be checking into these types of applications and was most impressed with Zotera.  I also found the information on file management to be useful and I plan on checking into dropbox.com.  The other thing that caught my attention was file organization.  I noticed several people had a sort of micro/macro organizational structure that I plan on implementing.   Diigo was another application that several people were using and I also find it useful.  Finally Tweet Deck was one that I had never heard of but definitely caught my interest.

Personal Learning Environment

PLE PPT Presentation1 [Autosaved]

Snow Flakes, Living Systems and the Mystery of Giftedness.

Humans are open and dynamic including their gifts and talents.  Three types of gifted potential were described in the article Snowflakes, Living Systems and the Mystery of Giftedness by David Yun Dai and Joseph S. Renzulli. The first was selective affinity. Selective affinity is a strong or obsessive interest in something. The second was maximal grip or a tendency or action toward mastery of knowledge, skills and dispositions and seeking outer resources, support, opportunities and experiences to enhance and develop competency.  The third is edge of chaos described as a high level of expertise and a psychological tension between known and unknown.

Dai and Renzulli describe the 3 facets of gifted potential as cyclical and which lead to the other in a cyclical pattern.  The first selective affinity which leads to maximal grip and enhances selective affinity, and maximal grip which leads to edge of chaos.

 Dai and Renzulli conclude that giftedness is made not born.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

The original goal for universal design for learning UDL was for the inclusion of students with disabilities. IEP teams were set up to identify short term objectives and improve involvement in programs for students with disabilities. The teams identified what services were needed, what modifications were needed and what programs the child could not participate in. UDL was originally meant for students with disabilities, but it forced educators and administrators to recognize that one size fits all education does not work for students and that we as educators must understand and recognize diversity to effectively facilitate learning. The core components of UDL are multiple presentations of information, multiple means of demonstrating knowledge, and multiple means of engagement. Assistive Technology is another concept that overlaps UDL and is also meant to assist students with disabilities, but can often benefit other students as well. There are a variety of software programs and other products available which can be used to apply UDL principles, but UDL principles can be applied without these products.

Is Google Making us Stupid?

After researching and reviewing both the affirmative team arguments and the negative team arguments my opinion remains the same.  I do not think Google is making us stupid.   There were some legitimate arguments in favor of the theory, but overall my opinion stands. 

As with any new technology it can be used as a source for growth and development, but can also have negative effects.  Google and internet access has been a source for people to access information easily and efficiently.  Information that took hours to find can now be found in minutes.  We still need to cross check our references for accuracy and authenticity, but that is also true when researching in the traditional sense.  The web 2.0 has increased our ability to access tons of information and anyone with access to a computer could essentially educate themselves on just about any topic, both informally and formally.  The argument that we are merely skimming rather than deep reading is valid.  Observation of my own behavior since reading this information has proven this true, however that is probably equally true when researching in the traditional sense. Finally, the idea that students are used to being entertained and expect to be entertained in the classroom is arguable as well.  I question this notion again from my own experience.  I was bored throughout most of my secondary education.  Traditional lecture based courses were un-engaging and most courses were taught in the traditional agrarian style learning environment.  Students today know there are alternatives.  They know they don’t have to sit through a boring presentation in a traditional classroom structure to get the information, they can simply turn to the internet to get the information they want and need. Learning Designers should embrace technology and the power is holds as an alternative to presenting course information in a creative and engaging format.

My contribution to the voicethread debate consisted on helping Misty coordinate, researching and organizing information for the initial post as well as providing comments to the slides.  For the rebuttal I also researched and organized information.  Our group worked well together.  We cooperated in dividing up the work and then collaborated and pulled it all together.  In my opinion the rebuttal went a little smoother than the initial post.

Multi-modal Learning

Multi-Modal-Learning

On Intelligence By Jeff Hawkins Chapter 4 and 5

In Chapters 4 and 5 from the book On Intelligence, author Jeff Hawkins discusses the idea that the neocortex of our brain is responsible for our intelligence.  The neocortex has billions of neurons that constantly make probabilistic predictions about what is about to happen.  These predictions draw from our memories of patterns and sequences that we experience throughout our lives.  We can often recall complete memories with only partial inputs given to us by temporal patterns.  Temporal patterns are small details that bring entire memories back.  Hawkins explains there are 3 properties of cortical memory, which include storing sequences, auto associative recall and invariant representations.  Our brains use stored memories to constantly make predictions about everything we see, feel and hear.  When we notice something is different our neurons set off low level sensories that lets us know something is different.  This is the primary function of the neocortex.

We experienced something similar to Hawkins example of  neocortex/pattern behavior example at our home this week.  Our back door knob broke and needed to be replaced.  The old door knob was the fancy french type handle that you pulled up on or pushed down on to open.  To save a few dollars I purchased a traditional door knob for its replacement.  My two boys complained for a week that they are reaching to open the door in the way that they did for the old handle.  Apparently it took their neocortex a while to recognize they needed a new pattern of behavior if they were going to open the back door. 🙂