Learning Theories
  • Welcome
  • Gagne
    • Overview
    • Pros & Cons
    • Support for Instructional Technology
    • Application to the Learning Environment
  • Vygotzky
    • Overview
    • Pros & Cons
    • Support for Instructional Technology
    • Application to the Learning Enviornment
  • Siemens & Downes
    • Overview
    • Pros & Cons
    • Historical Development
    • Support for Instructional Technology
    • Application to the Learning Experience
  • Theory Comparison
  • Group Members
  • Resource Citations

Siemens' and Downes' Connectivism

Pros

  • Connectivism shifts the role of instructional designer from a centralized teacher to each individual learner.  It is the responsibility of the learner to create their own learning experience.  
  • The theory embraces individual perspectives and diversity of opinions, theoretically providing for no hierarchy in the value of shared knowledge.
  • Connectivism seems to integrate advances in neuroscience and learning.
  • It takes into account the behaviors of learners in the "digital age" in an explicit way that is absent in other theories.

Cons

  • Critics (such as Verhagen in his article Connectivism: A New Learning Theory?) argue that Connectivism is a pedagogical approach rather than a learning theory
  • If a Connectivist learning network is decentralized and learners choose their own learning path, how do you create a centralized learning outcome?  If a centralized outcome is not important, how do you assess learning or plan instruction?
  • Connectivism is still in the process of being defined.  As a result the theory can appear vague.
  • It is unclear how educators who design instruction around this theory would address content-specific requirements of the current standardized testing system.
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