My mind map represents how my world is connected to me and how I learn. There are several factors that aid in the learning process, and each of these factors plays a very important role. For example, my work connection allows me to pay my bills and to form professonal relationships with people who share similar goals. My social connections keep me centered. The social connection also allows me to express myself and to experience many adventures. My media connections keep me informed of the world and it's surroundings, whereas my academic connection allows me to seek knowledge to better myself and to prepare myself for a field that interests me.
When thinking about how these connections have changed the way I learn, I go back to when I was in grade school and the tools we had available to us to facilitate learning. These tools would be considered rudimentary in this day and age, yet they were the best of the best at that time. "Back in the day," we used encyclopedia's to locate information. I would say that back then, learning was more of a process and you had to be patient when waiting for results. Now, with all the technology we have available to us, solutions to problems are churned out almost immediately. For me, this has drastically changed the way I learn. I have found that with more information available to me at my fingertips, I find myself researching many things that I would never have thought of before. I find that I have an unsatiable desire to simply know more. I most certainly could research this information using encyclopdia's and the like, but with the advent of the Internet, it became must easier for me to find information quickly and easily.
The tools that best facilitate learning for me now are the computer and my iPad. Both allow me to get information on demand via the Internet. My computer especially as it contains a wealth of information and allows me to pursue and develop my academic connection. Without the computer and specifically online learning, I would not be able to further my education and obtain a Master's degree. The computer especially is something that could actually be a central part of each and every one of my connections as each connection relies heavily on the use of technology of some sort.
When I have questions, I gain new knowledge by asking different people. It also depends on which area of my mind map that the question stems from. For example, if it's a question regarding work, I rely on subject matter experts to provide the information I need. If it's a question regarding course work for my graduate studies, I rely on the Walden library, the local library in my city, my peers of my professor. While I tend to turn to technology to answer most of my questions, I believe that peers, colleagues, family and friends are by far my best resource.
According to Davis, Edmunds and Kelly-Bateman (2008), at the core of connectivism is a combination of three things; the chaos theory, the importance of networks and the interplay of complexity and self-organization. The Chaos theory surmises that it is important to recognize and then adjust to pattern shifts, which then becomes a key learning task. Networks are important when it comes to sharing ideas using people, technology, and and social systems. Finally, complexity comes into play when there is a collection of interacting agents, which represent components as diverse as people. Since these interactions with such a diversity can be somewhat uncontrollable, the system eventually tends to self-organize, meaning that the interactions eventually create synergy.
When I think of my personal learning network in terms of the central tenents of connectivism, I believe it supports the tenents. Especially in terms of chaos. It is my belief that from chaos comes order. Since the world changes and shifts on a daily basis, the ability to keep up and learn from those shifts is important. My network allows me to form the proper connections that can help me to see the order through the chaos.
Reference:
Davis, C., Edmunds, E., & Kelly-Bateman, V. (2008). Connectivism. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology.
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