Wendy Drexler's The Networked Student is a "very easy to understand" representation of the way a student learns through networking. I enjoyed the "commoncraft" design style. The use of simple drawings and a single voice narration is a welcome change to many videos which have sometimes too much video and audio "noise".
"Connectivism" is a way of learning that doesn't use textbooks. The teacher guides the student to information by helping him or her create a learning network. A student searches for information from reliable sources about a subject and then follows the links to additional information and sites. A "virtual textbook" is created by RSS Feeds, "social bookmarking account", voice thread, and wiki. Among other things like being a guide and advisor, according to the video, a teacher "helps him (the student) organize those mountains of information" found through all the research.
At Ms. Drexler's blog, she listed several obstacles that a teacher meets when trying to introduce the teaching method of "Connectivism". One obstacle that might be very real for a new teacher is trying to incorporate this amount of technology and time into the already established and required curriculum. Just as Matthew Needleman suggested in his skype call to our class, I will just have to add a little technology each year. A second obstacle mentioned by Ms. Drexler that is a real concern is "protecting students from inappropriate content". I do not know if I am right, but I understand that sometimes the filters that are meant to protect our children, sometimes block the use of some tools or useful sites. I do not know the answer to this, but I believe their protection should come first.
Yes, filters sometimes block useful sites. But shouldn't our first priority be to teach students how to avoid, or quickly leave, inappropriate sites rather than try and build fences which will either not work like we desire or work too well and keep the world away?
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