Month: January 2022

There were so many things in this week’s article that stood out to me and that I agreed with. There were also many connections between the “Connectivism: A learning Theory for Digital Age” article and the “What is a Personal Learning Network” article. Both the authors stated that an increase in the usage of technology for learning has changed how humans think, learn, communicate and live. As I stated in last week’s post, I completely agree, and in fact, I have seen multiple changes in my own learning style since school went online, as I had to rely on technology for my learning. The article “Connectivism: A learning Theory for Digital Age” also introduced the concept regarding the half-life of knowledge. I did not know about this concept before, and when I found out about its meaning it made me go “wow”. Half-life is the period between the gain of knowledge till the knowledge becomes outdated. The article also stated how quickly the knowledge has been doubling. This made me realize how I have also experienced a quick increase or change in information. I am studying health information and computer science, and in both of these areas, information changes very rapidly. For example, in the tech world, new technologies come as past technologies have been advanced and everyone is expected to expand their knowledge and learn how the new technology functions. And in health care, as we all have experienced during this pandemic, new health-related issues keep arising, therefore, health workers are expected to expand their knowledge. This article also stated that formal learning is no more how humans gain most of their knowledge. Instead, informal learning has become more common as people learn from communities, personal networks, and work-related tasks. This made me wonder how important hands-on experience is for people. For example, this is exactly why some of the programs in universities and colleges have made it mandatory for students to complete co-op work terms. So that students get the chance to apply their knowledge learned in a formal learning setting in an informal learning setting. This helps the students learn how to network and draw information outside their primary knowledge.

What stood out to me in the article “What is a Personal Learning Network” was the way the author addressed that we were living and learning in a network society. The author addressed exactly the way in which learning through online spaces has changed how humans think, learn, store information, share ideas, study, work, etc. I agree with the author as I have also noticed these changes in my life overall. It also made me realize that a lot of these changes were triggered due to covid. Covid has increased online learning, which has made more people rely on google and other online platforms, rather than learning from people around them. This makes me wonder if people will ever be able to go back to normal learning as if was before covid, by learning from friends, mentors, and professionals.