Connectivism, Social Knowledge, and Participatory Learning

Years back, to be literate meant that a person had the ability to read and write. Since then, especially with the advent of the Internet, the definition has grown to include additional skills. To be literate now goes beyond reading and writing to being able to effectively communicate and identify, understand, interpret, computer, create, and use materials of various types including print, written, web, etc. The Internet has created a new set of tools to aid students; however, students are required to improve their learning to be able to keep up with the challenge of modern day literacy.

Participatory learning is the dynamic use of social media to aid in sharing information and collaborating with others. It includes, although it isn’t limited to, blogs, wikis, podcasts, social networking and videoblogs. All of this requires the modern student to be able to multi-task effectively, because the new online and multimedia learning environments require them to be using participatory media and other web-based tools. These new learning processes has given rise to such terms as connectivism and networked learning. What does this mean? Current teachers and future teachers must keep up with technologies inside and outside of the classroom. Many critics of contemporary education feel the traditional classroom-based teaching model is now obsolete and that teachers are no longer required to teach but to instead guide and advise their students since there are so many resources available.