-
- [Narrator] Humming.
-
Special thanks to Lee
LeFever of Common Craft
-
for granting permission
-
to use his brilliantly simple design.
-
This, my friends is a true story.
-
A student at 21st Century High School
-
is studying American Psychology
-
as part of his Contemporary Issues class.
-
But, it could be any topic.
-
He attends class three days
a week, two days online.
-
He doesn't have a textbook.
-
His teacher almost never lectures.
-
She is a student of connectivism,
-
a theory that presumes
that learning occurs
-
as part of a social network
-
of many diverse connections and ties.
-
This network is made possible
-
through various tools of technology.
-
The tools themself are not as important
-
as the connections made possible by them.
-
This teacher empowers her
students to take control
-
of their learning and make new connections
-
with others who will strengthen
the learning process.
-
Before our student embarks
on his learning adventure,
-
he must spend some time building
-
his personal learning network.
-
He practices finding valid websites
-
about the American psyche.
-
He is taught how to assess
and validate information
-
to ensure its credibility.
-
He uses Google Scholar and
his school's library database
-
to search for scholarly peer
reviewed articles on his topic.
-
When he finds a website
or article that is worthy,
-
he posts it to his
social bookmarking site,
-
a place where people share URLs
-
they have bookmarked on specific topics.
-
He finds other people
who have bookmarked sites
-
about the American psyche
-
and he shares the sites he has found.
-
Next, he searches for blogs
that others have written
-
about the American psyche.
-
He understands that blogs
often reflect opinions
-
rather than cold hard facts.
-
Based on what he has learned so far
-
about the American psyche,
-
he can choose to comment on these blogs
-
and offer his own informed
point of view for discussion.
-
In order to manage these blogs,
-
he uses a reader to subscribe to them
-
that way he can tell when
a blogger posts an update.
-
Once our student builds a knowledge base,
-
he creates his own blog
to post reflections
-
about what he has learned.
-
His classmates and virtually
anyone in the world
-
can visit his blog and comment
on his informed opinions.
-
21st Century student loves his MP3 player,
-
but there's more on that
device than his favorite music.
-
He subscribes to a number
of audio and video podcasts
-
that support his learning through iTunes U
-
he has access to thousands of courses
-
recorded by actual professors
from Stanford, Yale,
-
Cambridge, Open University
and countless others.
-
In fact, he finds a lecture from a course
-
called Social Psychology
offered at UC Berkeley.
-
He literally has access to the
best professors in the world.
-
While researching his topics,
-
he stumbles upon a documentary
about the American psyche.
-
A Dutch born Canadian immigrant filmmaker
-
crosses America to interview
Americans about their homeland.
-
Our student emails the filmmaker
-
who agrees to video
conference with the class
-
to discuss the documentary.
-
By the way,
-
our student knows a few
tricks for finding experts.
-
He also knows that it never hurts to ask.
-
People usually love to share
their knowledge and expertise,
-
especially with students.
-
As a few weeks pass,
-
our student is busy reading
the up to the minute
-
virtual textbook he has created
-
in his social bookmarking
account and RSS reader.
-
His learning project culminates
-
in the creation of his choice.
-
Perhaps a video he posts
to a video sharing site
-
at American Psyche Wiki
-
from which others can learn
-
or a voice thread to
which others can comment.
-
Regardless of the medium,
-
he is sharing his
organization of this knowledge
-
with the rest of the world
-
so the next student of the American psyche
-
can learn from his hard work.
-
The 21st Century student network
-
includes a wide range of connections.
-
Each one a new learning opportunity.
-
There's more to connected learning
-
than what you see in this project.
-
Think that it's just the beginning.
-
Information management
will be a major challenge
-
in the 21st century.
-
RSS makes it possible
for anyone to subscribe
-
to just about any changing
content on the internet.
-
New synchronous communication tools
-
are emerging nearly every day.
-
All of these tools make it
easier for our student to connect
-
with new contacts and learn effectively
-
from those he already knows.
-
So, why does he even
need a teacher you ask?
-
Good question.
-
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,
-
she shows him how to communicate properly
-
and ask respectfully
for help from experts.
-
She shows him how to differentiate
-
between good information and propaganda,
-
how to vet a resource,
-
how to turn a web search
into a scavenger hunt
-
and get excited when he
finds that Pearl of content.
-
She helps him organize those
mountains of information.
-
In her heart, she hopes that
when he leaves her class,
-
he'll maintain his learning network
-
and use it to navigate his future
-
and creatively solve the world's problems.
-
These are the skills he will
need in the 21st century.
-
This has been a Connectivism Production.
