My Own Connectivist Journey

by AJ

New ideas are growing exponentially. I feel Im being swept up by a wave of interesting innovations. Here, then, is my first hand experience of "connectivist learning". It started with a couple of links to other blogs. I began reading them. Occaisonally, those blogs would discuss an interesting idea they found on someone else's blog.

So Id check it out and discover another nest of cool ideas. Lately, this has exploded. Ive just spent several hours scouring the Creating Passionate Users blog, for example... and then spent a couple more madly writing new teaching ideas with a cramped hand.

The really uncanny thing is the way I seem to stumble on information just when I need it. Im thinking about the topic of subversion and Wham!-- there's a post on subverting. Im struggling with what to do in-class... and soon find a series of posts on creating absorbing and super-fantastic learning experiences. I start planning a web based course and English 360 has a post about their new software in development for teachers.

So I get it! My question now is... how do I get my students to get it? If I can tap them into the connectivist learning phenomenon, they will soon outgrow their need for me... which is precisely my ultimate goal.