Connectivism

Reading the Week 2 articles and watching the videos about Connectivism has helped me to realize that MOOC is about interactivity between everyone that is connected via blogging, e-mail, Facebook, and Twitter.  Students are able to articulate their needs and reflect on their leanings with their peers, teachers, and others that participate just because they want to help others or continue to grow themselves.  Downes helps us understand what a good blog post should consist of and how it should be structured.  Using inductive and deductive arguments, explanations, and definitions help us to understand how the blog content should be presented.  Learning and mastering new skills is the most important part of the educational process.

The picture below helped me to better understand what this course/MOOC is really about.  While it is definitely different than the traditional Center for Distance Learning (CDL) classes I am used to taking at Empire State College, it offers a broader expression of creativity and brings the focus to sharing to and adding to existing content.  Stephen Downes from the National Research Council of Canada brings to light that as there are 400,000 educational blogs and that many teachers continue to use them as sources to show their students information.  These learning communities assist students by enabling them to share their opinion about a wide variety of topics in the educational world, which in turn spreads information to others (Downes, 2013). 

References:
Downes, Stephen (2013).   Access::Future - Practical Advice on How to Learn and What to Learn.  Referenced from http://www.cdlprojects.com/cmc11blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/AccessFuture.pdf.
Bogado, José  (2013).  Connection not Content.  Referenced from http://gbl55.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/cck11-man-this-mooc-is-something-else/.

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