Friday, September 11, 2009

¿Qué es Conectivismo?

Traduje “What is Connectivism? A Quick introduction to the topic of Connectivism” y lo presento aquí para los que están cursando CCK09 este año.

La transcripción y edición del audio fueron realizadas por Matthias Melcher que, junto con su sobrina Silke, está haciéndo una gran labor para llevar el Conectivismo al idioma Alemán. ¡Gracias Matthias! ¡Mucho éxito para todos en el curso!







Hola y bienvenidos al Curso de Conectivismo y Conocimiento Conectivo que es ofrecido por George Siemens y Stephen Downs. Soy Stephen Downes.

Estamos aquí para darles la bienvenida hoy con una introducción a lo que creemos que es Conectivismo en sí.
El Conectivismo es una especie de teoría que habla de acerca de tecnología y aprendizaje…que habla acerca de nuevos tipos de aprendizaje y ustedes se pueden preguntar, bueno, ¿porqué necesitamos más teorías de aprendizaje cuando ya tenemos muchas teorías?

Una de las cosas que encontraremos conforme avancemos en este curso es que el Conectivismo reta muchos de las concepciones involucradas en lo que Paul Churchland llama Psicología Popular. Concepciones como:

• Tener una idea,
• Mantener una creencia,
• Aprender una verdad.

Estas cosas, estas creencias y otros estados psicológicos se han encontrado en la Psicología a través de milenios pero las teorías que nos informan hoy acerca del conocimiento, el aprendizaje y la tecnología son nuevas. Están basadas en conocimiento reciente, y tal vez encontraremos en el transcurso del curso que estas entidades psicológicas populares no son apropiadas y no son suficientes para informar nuestra discusión acerca del conocimiento y aprendizaje.

Entonces, ¿Qué es Conectivismo específicamente? Conectivismo es específicamente la tesis de que el conocimiento es literalmente distribuido a través de conexiones, el lo que sea que es creado cuando la información es enviada de una conexión, una entidad, a otra entidad. Dos entidades están conectadas si, una señal enviada por una entidad puede cambiar el estado de otra entidad.

El Aprendizaje es, por lo tanto, la capacidad de construir estas conexiones y la capacidad de viajar usando estas conexiones para enviar información a través de éstas conexiones. El Conocimiento, por lo tanto, en esta teoría no es algo que se adquiere, no es algo que sea un objeto, sino más bien es el crecimiento o desarrollo de esas conexiones, tanto el crecimiento como el desarrollo de esas conexiones en la mente, y el crecimiento y desarrollo de esas conexiones en la sociedad.

Si consideramos el conocimiento como un juego de conexiones entonces cualquier cosa que consista de un juego de conexiones puede considerarse como un objeto de aprendizaje. Entonces, la mente puede ser un objeto de aprendizaje, una computadora puede ser un objeto de aprendizaje, una sociedad puede ser un objeto de aprendizaje. Y vemos evidencia de este aprendizaje tanto en la sociedad como en las personas.

Otro aspecto importante del Conectivismo es que el conocimiento no es propositivo. Lo que significa es que el conocimiento no está compuesto de oraciones. Está, como acabo de decir, compuesto por conexiones, compuesto por interacciones entre entidades. Como dije anteriormente, el conocimiento es literalmente las conexiones entre esas entidades. No es alguna oración descrita como conexión en esas entidades o algo parecido.

Podemos pensar en diferentes sentidos cuando hablamos de Conectivismo. Podemos pensar en un sentido fuerte de Conectivismo en el cual, si tenemos dos juegos de conexiones que son idénticas, entonces éstas tienen el mismo conocimiento. Y esto es cierto hasta cierto punto, pero el juego de conexiones que encontramos en una red, el conocimiento que expresa, emerge de ese juego de conexiones, no está contenido en él. De la misma manera que una imagen de Nixon no está contenida en los pixeles que componen una pantalla de televisión, sino que, cuando vemos estos pixeles ordenados de cierta manera nosotros reconocemos esa imagen como la de Richard Nixon.

El conocimiento es algo que es reconocido, el conocimiento requiere de alguien que lo perciba, de un conocedor. Algo es conocido únicamente si es reconocido. Entonces, cuando las personas me preguntan que es el conocimiento algunas veces les digo: El conocimiento es como encontrar a Waldo en “Donde está Waldo”. Y es una discapacidad para ver algo de alguna otra manera. Una vez que has encontrado a Waldo no puedes desencontrar a Waldo. Eso es a lo que nos referimos como conocimiento.

Lo que esto quiere decir es que, si tenemos un juego de conexiones y la percepción de dos personas diferentes, dos personas mirando esto, pueden ver cosas diferentes. Hay diferente conocimiento en el mismo juego de conexiones porque los que lo perciben pueden tener diferente conocimiento base, pueden tener diferentes suposiciones, pueden tener diferente lo que George Lakoff llama marcos de referencia.

Entonces, en esta teoría, la formación de conocimiento es el desarrollo de esas conexiones, como se he dicho, y esas conexiones se desarrollan a través de un proceso que es llamado asociación. La asociación es el mecanismo que describe cómo es que se forman las conexiones entre las neuronas. Hablaremos mas tarde en este curso acerca de los principios específicos de las asociaciones, las reglas específicas que gobiernan el proceso de formación de conexiones entre dos entidades separadas.

Una vez más, la idea aquí, de asociación es que el conocimiento es cultivado, se desarrolla entre esas dos conexiones. Y no es edificado o construido. No se edifican o construyen redes. Ustedes las cultivan, o las nutren, o las ejercitan, o las desarrollan. Es una capacidad o una habilidad, en lugar de un edificio o un constructo.

De manera similar, en Conectivismo, como dice el dicho, no se crea significado. El significado es una propiedad de las oraciones. El significado es una propiedad del lenguaje. No es una propiedad de las conexiones. Y así, consecuentemente, no hablamos del significado de las conexiones del modo en que hablaríamos del significado de una oración. No estamos, por lo tanto, obligados a desarrollar teorías de representación, o teorías de referencia como se requiere en el lenguaje. Y una vez más, esto es una clase de cosas de las que hablaremos conforme avancemos en el curso; que es de lo que estamos hablando, que es lo que estamos pensando cuando pensamos acerca de las cosas de manera conectivista.

De manera similar, en Conectivismo decimos que el conocimiento no es transferido. Una vez más, esta es la idea de que el conocimiento no es un objeto, no es una cosa. El conocimiento no es algo que se carga de un lado a otro. Por lo tanto, una teoría de aprendizaje no es una teoría de transferencia de aprendizaje. Ni siquiera es una teoría de aprendizaje transaccional donde hay un intercambio o nada por el estilo. Otra vez, lo que sucede cuando aprendemos es un proceso de crecimiento y desarrollo.

El Connectivismo, por lo tanto es una teoría que básicamente tiene dos objetivos principales:

Primero que nada, habla acerca de cómo se cultivan las redes o como se desarrollan. Cuáles son los procesos, cuales son las cosas que se pueden hacer en orden de fomentar el desarrollo de una red en ustedes mismos o en otros, o en la sociedad como un todo.

Y entonces en segundo lugar, el Conectivismo es una teoría que describe redes exitosas. Que redes funcionan en si. Que redes son confiables. Cuando vemos una red y decimos: Ah si, esto es..., reconozco algo en esa red. ¿Podemos confiar? ¿Cómo podemos confiar en esa red? Algunas redes no son confiables, algunas redes son caracteristicas de cosas como la psicología de las turbas o lo que sea. Así que nos gustaría ser capaces de describir las redes que de manera más confiable, más efectiva nos proporcionen información sobre la que podamos actuar. Y hablaremos acerca de esas condiciones con algún detalle.
Así que esto es un rápido esbozo del Conectivismo, y hablaremos más acerca de todo lo que significan estos conceptos conforme progresa este curso. Así que gracias por su tiempo, y espero realmente que disfruten del curso tanto como nosotros disfrutaremos presentándolo.

La transcirpción en Español está aquí

La transcirpción en Inglés está aquí. Gracias Silke!

Saturday, May 23, 2009

BaeL at Webheads in Action Convergence 2009

After months I'm back in this blog. I had to embed my first public presentation here!

Electronic Village Online sessions went very well indeed, it was a fabulous experience to be a moderator of BaW09 and Enhancing Lessons. Both moderator teams rock!
I was kept away mainly due to PC troubles.
Unfortunatelly, most of the files and pictures I created during my moderating experience were lost or are still misplaced.

Beware if you have Windows Live OneCare, it clashes with Internet Explorer and the backups created by OneCare end up as a troublesome and painful task. Endless hours to recover the files.

In this WIAOC09 presentation I talk about how BaeL project started, which venues and tools were used and the resuts I got. The online course started the 24Th of March 2008 and ended with 43 participants the 24Th of April 2008. Now we have 81 participants and the weekly sessions we currently have are called BaeLMods09 Training.
What made my presentation rich were the contributions of those great educators that joined me there. Of course, I couldn't have done this without the extraordinary support and guidance of Moira, it's an honor for me to have her as mentor.


Moderator: Moira Hunter
Participants: Gonzalo, Mary, Mbarek, Dennis, Vero... (collage of pictures coming soon)

I hope you enjoy watching it.

This recording is hosted at Webheads Video Clips
Creating Bridges: a report on an online experience to overcome Digital Divide.
Presenter: Maru del Campo
Recorded live on Ustream 05/23/2009 03:56 pm PST

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Final CCK08 Project

Finally. After weeks of hard work, coordination, joint efforts, difficult time schedules, detailed work at our wiki, several live meetings, technical problems and many emails the final CCK08 video project can see the light.

My deepest thanks Stephen Downes and George Siemens for providing a great platform for Conncetivism and Connective Knlowledge and to all the participants that shared their experiences and made my jouney a memorable one.

Speciat Note: I had the honor of working with Vivpav Baxi (India) and Carlos Casares (Spaniard in Germany), thanks to both for their ideas, efforts, patience, creativity, support and trust. It was a wonderful experience!

You'll see evidence of openess, autonomy, diversity, connectedness and equity. We all pulled our share of work and got a high level of trust among us. It was amazing!



I invite you to see our process, please visit our wiki. It was an enriching experience to work in a team with Carlos and Viplav, although we are so different we came to respect our differences. I learned a lot during this last weeks from them and with them. This week was excruciatingly long; we were tied up with technical difficulties with SplashCast (btw, support has not answered), each of us displaying our skills with unsuccessful results until Viplav managed to convert it to a YouTube video.

Although our answers to the final questions are placed here, I'll post mine here to leave a complete account of my learning.

1. What is the quality of my learning networks: diversity, depth, how connected am I?
My learning networks are more deep and diverse now. Most of them are focused on online learning and have different subjects of study.
My earlier networks, all in English, have become stronger, diverse and deeper, it seems that placing myself in different forums and live events has also enriched them. I see the latter as proof that everything goes back to the network, the knowledge travels, gets modified and it's placed back for further additions, modifications, challenges, etc. The new contacts I made formed a new network that holds deep conversations, I have a few valuable connections there and I hope to acquire more with time. Although I gained a lot of knowledge, by reading the articles suggested, the threads at Moodle and the individual blogs, I perceive that network too advanced for me to contribute in a useful way. I need to keep learning to interact with more confidence there. Lack or confidence also kept me from posting more in Moodle.
Besides my family and friends I didn't have Hispanic nodes in my network before the course. My recent Spanish network needs further nutriment, lack of time during the course, to my regret, prevented me from interacting more with the Spanish community. After the final project is handed over I will pursue those connections.

2. How has this course influence my view of the process of learning (assuming, of course, that it has)?
Of course this course influenced my point of view about learning! The information I found was new for me in every sense. I must admit I had not heard about connectivism before and I had not given serious thought to online learning. To think that knowledge is on the network and that learning is the ability to navigate through the connections made no sense at all at the beginning. Now, after this connective experience, it all makes sense. The last live session added the cherry to my pie, thanks for answering my question, even if a George mentioned, it was off topic. I know, because I've tried, that to explain my experience with words leads me to terrible misunderstandings and endless discussions. You have to live it to understand it.
If I ever have the opportunity to give another online course I will plan it completely different.

3. What types of questions are still outstanding?
An issue is evaluation or assessment (which from my point of view it's always subjective), a valid evaluation would have to be reached by each adult participant or parent in case of youngsters. Would a course survey taken before and after a connectivist course help the learner to assess his performance? Something like this image maybe?

I see learner's dependency as a main drawback to a connectivist course, Would it be valid to run a course to foster autonomy prior to a connectivist course?


4. How can you incorporate connectivist principles in your design and delivery of learning?
I may be wrong but I perceive myself as acting in a connectivist way online and offline.
Offline, I work with nodes from different disciplines, mainly Psychiatrists, Neurologists, Language Therapists, Psychologists, Social Workers and Nurses. We are all emergent, depending on the context and the kind of issue we gather to reach a therapeutic path and a solution; in the end it's the patients' (family or individual) actions which tell us if the intervention was successful or not.
Online, I work with basic computer programs offered by LearnFree which let the learner's evaluate themselves, I created a Ning site that is chaotic per se to foster connections with other learners and widen their network and we have a Yahoo Group as mailing list. Every member has his/her own learning objectives, we add resources or comments when we invited to do so and every learner decides when and how ofter to engage in the discussion. I would like to design with more vision the framework of my courses in the future and invest time on modeling or teaching autonomy.

Friday, November 28, 2008

This is just the start of Connectivism

Today was the last Friday of our CCK08 course, I went to the live session at Ustream to find a link to an Elluminate session where people were gathered.  For the first time I had something interesting to share with voice.  What is it?

Smak posted in the chat: "@Stephen, George and others: Like to learn from you how decisions (say to connect and interact) are made". (Dec 1sr edit:John or Smak came by to let me know that Smak is his ID at Elluminate, thanks John!).p>

His question got me thinking because I belong, as far as I know, to the only group formed to make the final project. The team had set earlier an Elluminate session using the Webheads vRoom to decide what to add, change, agree on, etc. We are four members: Dolores from Spain, Carlos in Germany, Viplav in India and me from Mexico.  Only Carlos and I managed to get there.  It was very interesting  to watch our struggles to get to decisions in a connective way, we had lots of fun!  We are so diverse that it was not an easy task. I kept Smak question in mind and when Dave asked for speakers I raised my hand and at the appropriate time I got the mic, voiced his question and told them about our reaching decisions adventure.



Here are some of the questions  and comments posted in the chat:

  • smak: I think this is the most important question in connectivism
  • Wendy Drexler: Does decision making equal control?
  • Lisa M Lane: and yet, decisions must be made
  • ctscho: Decisions are local, perhaps?
  • smak: @George: How about learning decision, individually, the network
  • Wendy Drexler: With all of this connectivist content created as a result of this course, I'm already thinking about how I can organize it...bring it all together.
  • Me: To have groups at the end is a very interesting journey, thanks!
  • Jo Ann Hammond-Meiers: What is consensus versus honing in on a focused point
  • Lisa M Lane: see, I knew it would come back to individualism (I didn't create any of the wikis I was promoting. LOL)
  • Me:@ Viplav you're here too!  How have you find our decision making process?
  • ViplavBaxi: @Maru: I think along the lines Stephen is talking right now
    - in a very individual manner, yet connected and evolving
  • ViplavBaxi: @Jo: many other factors also enable - eg. common language, protocol
  • Stian: @ViplavBaxi: Good point, would be very interested in exploring the role of language further.
  • Stephen Downes: The way we create mechanisms to connect ... matters.
  • Stephen Downes:  deaf networks, that all the nodes become the same (audio comment)
  • Moderator (George Siemens): @maru - connectivism or cck08 attributes from the stance of the education field (To continue tagging)

This is just the start!  I would like to know about the research that surely will be conducted, keep me posted!  LOL No one will post me, RSS will! 

Playing with  SplashCast to create a demo and a collaborative site for the team to work independently but collaboratively,  I came up with this slide show.  I hope you have as much fun as I had while creating it!  (Only the first slide is in Spanish)




Wendy's exquisite video came to the table.  Enjoy!

This video came to put in place more pieces of the puzzle.  I've been thinking for a while that I need to define my needs and focus to get them covered.  Obviously I don't have the right connections or I'm looking in the wrong directions or I'm not looking at all.  I know about events serendipitously and many times I don't join the adventures I would like to participate in because I learn about them too late. So I need to observe myself, think and find out what I'm doing wrong.  Else, I go to Hubs where owners start sending daily emails advertising things, pissing me off with "sales", "unique opportunities to make money" and stuff just like in FaceBook. 

If they knew! LOL  Money is not Money, money come for it my engine at the moment... has it been in any given period of my life? Yes, when I was homeless in Manchester while writing my Master thesis; my solution was to get a bicycle to save the bus fare for lunch, spend the night at the Maths building punching cards to get the SSPSx program running on ROSCOW and to sleep during the day in parks or in the living room of a charitable friend for a few days.

I'm looking for collaborators for my on my BaeL crusade, people that gets no harm speaking and writing in Spanish, bilingual people interested on Digital Literacy and web 2.0 tools but... what do I have to offer in return?  Well... learners of Spanish, English, Basic Microsoft programs, e-tools and... plenty of data to do research.  Ning provides plenty of data, that I don't know how to obtain yet but it's there for the taking. Yahoo Groups also provides data but not in the same handy way.  I want to learn how to take advantage of the stats feature in Ning, the doors at Manchester University are open for me and a PhD sounds attractive but... that will take time.

Several "connections" have questioned the way I see my computer literacy or my illiteracies.  They interpret that as lack of self esteem but I see that as a reality.  I don't have a natural inclination to electronic devices or cables or plugs or computer tools; I'm clumsy, I take hours to do what Stephen suggest to do in ten minutes.  It's the same with cooking, I'm not a natural chef; I spend hours cooking what my sister cooks in half an hour.  In both areas I'm satisfied with my end products, the sites work, the tools do what they're supposed to do and the food tastes quite nice.  Sometimes I receive compliments from both areas.  The difference lies in that I have F.U.N. with  the computer and I hate the kitchen.  I rather spend my time having F.U.N.!

After Elluminate I went to 28-nov-08 weekly SLexperiments meeting_004 my SLexperiments weekly meeting, were I felt like in the Chilbo SL Cohort.  SL continues to behave very badly, voice was down and we had to text chat... what a waste!  Besides, I'm tired, very very tired of typing.  You'll find the summary here.

(Btw: I don't know who Smak and Stian are. If someone knows their blogs, please share them to add the proper links here.  Thanks).

Thursday, November 27, 2008

An Illiterate in the CCK08 course

Tonight, after the last  Elluminate CCK08 session, I went to Dave Cormier's blog and found his post about Literacy.  It was like if a veil was taken from my eyes, many of my discomforts found its place.

My reply there was:

Hi Dave!
Thanks for giving a name to how I felt during the CCk08 course, the word “inadequate” didn’t quite explain things for me. Illiterate is the perfect fit. In many aspects I was illiterate, in many others I remain so. I have a looong road ahead but now I see some paths.
I’m glad you explained to me some subtleties in the Korean language and culture, one of my best friends is Korean and I understand him a bit more now.
Thanks also for moderating the live online sessions. It’s been a pleasure hearing you.
Maru :X

Then I went to the Intro Emerging Tech 09 course wiki and found this video.  What caught my attention was that I had seen it before, finding little sense; today, I found more sense. Maybe, if I watch it again in the future I will see more patterns.

 

This morning's events are also clearer now after reading Dave's post.  I went 26-nov conferencia_005to the  International Forum on Digital Contents (Ficod08 for his Spanish initials) in Second Spain.  Although it was in Spanish, it was about social networks and how are they used for business, I didn't understood some of the terms.  I saw that I had learned the technical words in English during the CCK08 course and I did not have the words in Spanish.  A side of my illiteracy showed up.

An hour later we had our weekly SLexperiments26 nov muvenation_007 meeting in  Spanish, Dolores and I agreed on solving two things: my urgent problem to get rid of my cat paws and her required visit to Muvenation site.  Steve joined us and he helped me to select a new avatar, his Spanish is very good. The first new avatar remained with paws and I had to strip to sort out the problem, Steve's avatar respectfully turned his back to give my avatar some kind of privacy. I was so embarrassed!26 nov muvenation_012

With my new avatar  we went to Muvenation and met Daf there. Daf took us to where Dolores could join the Muvenation student's group that suited her needs and then we tested Daf's orientation site: 

http://slurl.com/secondlife/MUVEnation/212/194/100

Having satisfied our needs we rested by the fire.  It was a wonderful afternoon!

With my deepest gratitude to Dave, Stephen, George, Dolores, Steve and Daf.