Connectivism: A vision for education
Keynote speaker: George Siemens
Information creation, dissemination, and sharing increasingly occur in distributed networks. For decades, educators have sought ways to increase learners' control over their own learning. Social media, such as blogs, virtual worlds, wikis, bookmarking, and networking, create a shift from a centralized to a distributed learning model. However, learner autonomy is not without consequence. What is the role of the instructor in a distributed learning model? How are authority and trust created?
Hierarchies of content, dialogue, and authority are being transformed into learning networks. As these foundational elements of education change, the very model of education itself needs to be reconsidered. What does it mean to learn and to be educated in a digital, global world? How should institutions, educators, and administrators react?
George Siemens will explore the effects of changed learner relationships with each other, with content, with educational institutions, and with a global society. He will present a vision of education that blends the rapidly changing needs of today's learners with the established challenge of education as a transformative agent in society.
Biographical information
George Siemens is Associate Director of Research and Development with the Learning Technologies Centre at the University of Manitoba. He is founder and President of Complexive Systems Inc. (www.complexive.com), a learning lab focused on integrated learning structures to meet global strategy needs.
George is a prominent writer and researcher on learning, networks, technology and organizational effectiveness in digital environments. He is the author of Knowing Knowledge, an exploration of ways the context and characteristics of knowledge have changed and what it means to organizations today. He maintains www.elearnspace.org, www.knowingknowledge.com, and www.connectivism.ca.
George is an international speaker and consultant, detailing the changes universities, colleges, and corporations must make in order to address the challenges of an increasingly complex world. Additional background information is available at this site: http://www.elearnspace.org/about.htm
