ITEC 830 - Second Class Meeting "Connectivism" (Siemens)

After reading through the George Siemens material, my first thought is that Siemens is pursuing his own "Theory of Everything" (TOE) in the educational field. The ironic connotation of TOE seems appropriate to a theory which lacks a definition. Perhaps, though, I am missing the point; it would not be the first time I couldn't see the forest for the trees...

I take no exception to most of what Siemens describes. For example, the statement, "How people work and function is altered when new tools are utilized," is apparent---if not obvious---from the ubiquitous e-mail account which had its origins in 1993 through the efforts of AOL and Delphi (and earlier through CompuServe). His statement is true, but it has been since early man learned to communicate with his peers eons ago. If anything, Connectivism seems to be a melange of obvious statements.

I do disagree with Siemens when he states: "The pipe is more important than the content within the pipe." A better philosophy might be: "The existence of a pipe and access to it is---perhaps---more important than the content within the pipe at any given time."

I'm curious about how others reacted to the material.

It's now a week after I started this post, and I've had the benefit of reading some of my classmates' blogs on the subject of "connectivism." Additionally, out of frustration I read/skimmed Siemens' book, "Knowing Knowledge," seeking a definition (operational or otherwise cogent) of "connectivism." I still have no definition of what I consider a muddled concept. Honestly, I cannot find anything new---let alone groundbreakinhg---in Siemens' work. I do find a lot of existing concepts which have been reworded; e.g., "the new oppressed" as a restatement of the "digital divide." I also find incomplete or erroneous positings such as his statements about the development of video from a recording device to a tool for communication. (It was not until the technology of video became less expensive, digitized and subsequently became available to "everyone," that it became the ubiquitous tool it is today. One last thought... Siemens says, "Hierarchy imposes structure while networks reflect structure." Well, networks contain hierarchies. The "cloud" network envisioned by Tim Berners-Lee (see the post below on ITEC 800 Chapter 4) in the creation of hyper-text (HTML) exists but only to the degree that hyper-text links between and among sites are permitted by those who control the sites. In a practical sense, that means I can link this blog to NEC, but NEC is not going to link their site to my Blog---not in my lifetime, I'm sure. Therein lies the hierarchy within the network---every place is not necessarily accessible from every other place. "Six degrees of separation" does not hold true for the Web, either. Siemens suggests the "network" must be a "flat" or democratic playing space for knowledge to flourish in this age; it is not, but it does provide knowledge nevertheless---a lot of knowledge.