My Connectivist Personal Learning Network | Learning The Connectivist Way – Part III

( Authors Notes: Learning the Connectivist Way is a three part series describing my journey to self directed learning and connectivism.)

Personal Learning Network
A personal learning network (PLN) is a group of people who you connect with to increase your knowledge of a particular subject (Lynch, 2017). PLNs typically fit into a connectivist paradigm of learning of creating, connecting with people or nodes, to increase learning. Connecting with people is basically aimed at learning their ideas, thoughts, questions, reflections and even references. It can be personal or professional, formal and informal, local or global and even on and offline. Here is an example of a connectivist learning network.

I started to explore PLNs in 2007 when I started to blog about healthcare. It got me into thinking, this might be the answer to increasing my learning!

According to Downes (2010), learning in a connectivist way entails 3 important ingredients- relevance interaction and usability. These “ingredients” also makes or breaks a personal learning network. In the field of orthopedics and medicine, currency of one’s knowledge is vital. Information on print media such as books is usually 5 to 10 years behind. Current advancements in medicine are almost spread instantaneously via the net. So its crucial that I have to be connected to the net to gain access fast to this advances.

Technologies for Personal Learning Networks

Aggregating Relevant Information
I use Feedly (or Google Reader) to acquire, organize and filter vital updates in medical field. Most websites have RSS feeds and you only need to subscribe to be updated of their latest information. These feeds can be “pulled” by a Feedly account and then I curate information according to categories of interests like medicine orthopedics. Most paid journals nowadays include abstracts on their feed already.
I blog my reflections about these curated information in a self hosted WordPress site. Reflective writing is thought of as a higher form of learning. I post it on relevant discussion forums, Facebook, LinkedIn and on twitter for critical reviews and feedbacks. I help build a network of blogging physicians as sort of community peer review on many topics. To interact with colleagues and people of interest, I use twitter, Linkedin or Facebook .

Building Interactivity
Twitter is a personal favorite because I can build networks of global, medical thought leaders in no time. Twitter has also been the launch pad of #HealthXPh– a collaborative effort of healthcare social media practitioners online, discussing social media and other emerging technologies that impact healthcare in the Philippines (Aguilar, 2015). Twitter gave birth to hubs of interactivity for healthcare in twitter chats, twitter journal clubs and organisational conference tweets. I can interact, learn and engage with mentors and colleagues, anywhere, anytime. #HealthXPh is presently the launchpad of a healthcare social media summit we started 4 years ago to bring practitioners together in a face to face synchronous conference for healthcare in the Philippines. We had a social network presence on Facebook since then and this serves also as a way of rapidly connecting with local colleagues as this is very popular in the Philippines.

Simplifying and Improving Usefulness of Content
All these tools don’t have steep learning curves for usage. It can be tweaked easily to fit learning styles. My aggregator for example, curate only information from subscribed relevant feeds. The hashtags on twitter filters topics I’m only interested in. Discussion forums and threads are easily read and replied to. I became adept at blogging so much that I also went back to improving on my writing. Reflecting on the curated information pushes me to summarise and clarify and synthesise thoughts. I began to organize information into simple and understandable body of information to myself. I use my own words to better understand concepts in medicine and orthopedics and to the many other relevant topics.

Unlike a purely connectivist learning, I still attend face to face conferences, workshops and other sessions to expand my learning. In this face to face sessions however, I made it a habit to connect and exchange information to people through twitter or Linkedin or even Facebook. I bring my online connections too, offline.

Organising information and growing my network of learning individuals increased my access to open educational resource as well as paid journals. A tweet to authors for example increases my chances of being given special permission to use articles for research without paying through hefty sums at journal paywalls. More importantly, these social network tools allowed me to connect to information, anytime and anywhere.

Now what do I do with the information I get from this ever growing personal learning network? How do I turn them into knowledge? This is where Bloom’s Taxanomy for Learning comes in. (This is will discuss in another post though)

Blooms Taxonomy for Learning (img src https://tips.uark.edu/using-blooms-taxonomy/)

In summary, I presented my evolving story and influence towards connectivism as a learning paradigm. Learning in connectivism is mainly building and interacting in networks through aggregation, co creation, storage and retrieval of information. I embraced connectivism as a learning paradigm rather than theory, based on the absence of clear, replicable and research validated pedagogy for teaching in my field so far. Advancements in internet and communication technology improved learning way and I presented technologies enhancing salient features of connectivist learning. Finally I shared a technology enhanced strategy to maximize learning in a connectivist ecology.

I’d love to read your thoughts on these, feel free to comment below.

  1. What is your personal learning network? 
  2. What tools do you employ to build interactivity, relevance, usability to information derived from this PLN?

References:

  1. Aguilar, R. (ND). What is #HealthXPh? [Weblog post] Retrieved from http://healthxph.net/about/what-is-healthxph
  2. Anderson, T. (2008). Towards a theory of online learning. In T. Anderson (Ed.), Theory and practice of online learning (2nd ed.) (pp. 45-74). Alberta, Canada: Athabasca University.
  3. Downes, S. (2007, February 3). What connectivism is [Weblog post]. Retrieved from http://halfanhour.blogspot.com/2007/02/what-connectivism-is.html
  4. Downes, S. (2010, May 6). Connectivist Learning and Teaching [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/Downes/connectivist-learning-and-teaching
  5. Kop, R., & Hill, A. (2008). Connectivism: Learning theory of the future or vestige of the past? International review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 9(3), 1-13.
  6. Lynch, M. (2017, August 5) What Is A Personal Learning Network? [ Web log post] Retrieved from https://www.thetechedvocate.org/personal-learning-network/
  7. Morrison, G., Ross, S., Kemp, J., and Kalman, H. (2011). Designing effective instruction. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
  8. Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism – A learning theory for the digital age. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 2(1), 3–10.
  9. Siemens, G. (2006b). Knowing knowledge. LuLu.com Electronic book..
  10. Wade, M. C. (2010,December 14). A Personal Philosophy [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://cybergogue.blogspot.com/2010/12/personal-philosophy.html

By • November 6, 2018

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What Is Connectivism? | Learning The Connectivist Way – Part II

( Authors Notes: Learning the Connectivist Way is a three part series describing my journey to self directed learning and connectivism.)

Learning and teaching is still mainly “behaviorists – cognitivist”  but social constructivism and connectivism creeped in with the coming of  lifelong and self-directed learning paradigms. I narrated events that led to taking control of my learning in the first part of this series. 

Let’s sort connectivism now.

What is Connectivism?

Learning and knowledge in connectivism is defined as:

“…processes that occur within nebulous environments of shifting core elements—not entirely under the control of the individual. Learning (defined as knowledge patterns on which we can act) can reside outside of ourselves (within an organisation or a database), is focused on connecting specialised information sets. The connections that enable us to learn more are more important than our current state of knowing”

Siemens 2006b

Connectivists believe that knowledge is distributed “across a network of connections”. The ability to construct and traverse those networks are what constitute learning in connectivism” (Downes, 2007).

The ability to aggregate, co-create, store and retrieve information in these networks is a measure of learning in connectivism. Anderson (2008), said connectivism helps people understand that “learning is about making connections with ideas, facts, people, and communities.”

Connectivism according to Stephen Downes (Please click the image for a larger view)

Salient Features of Connectivism
Many salient features of connectivism fits my way I of learning.  Connectivism acknowledges that new information is continually being acquired” and “decisions (to learn) are based on rapidly altering foundations “(Siemens, 2007). In medicine and orthopedic surgery assumptions are outdated by the time you mastered a “prescribed learning”. To stay abreast with the developments in my field, it’s becoming clear that my ability to find ways of knowing is more important than what I currently know. The faster and more efficient I could build relevant network, the better is my learning.

Connectivism also transcends the physical as well as transactional distance a characteristic shared by other learning theories or paradigm. Connectivism shares with constructivism the idea that learning isn’t acquired but disagrees with it that learning can be constructed either from a teacher or the learner environment (Downes, 2007). The act of making connections is learning itself in a connectivist paradigm. Interactivity is more important than constructing or acquiring knowledge.

Criticism Against Connectivism
Wade (2014) argues that connectivism is more like an instructional theory, specifying an instruction in a given learning context. He cited Morrison, Ross, Kemp, and Kalman (2011), definition of learning theories as “descriptive and generic while instructional theories are “ prescriptive and situation specific”. Verhagen (in Veletsianos, 2010), said that “…connectivism is more a theory of curriculum (specifying what the goal of education should be and the way students should learn in that curriculum) than a theory of learning”. Wade furthered went further to state that connectivism is an “attractive theory for practitioners wishing to change their practice, to take advantages of the affordances of digital media and open publishing”.

My learning experience and context led me to believe connectivism paradigm of learning rather than a theory. What learning I gained interacting with those networks and nodes are still “taught” behaviourally and cognitively. The frequent hops between networks, also negates the existence of a teacher or a mentor (Kop and Hill, 2008) . Such educational set up is still non existent in the medical field. Although there are areas in medicine where self directed learning augments formal, synchronous face to face instructions, research still points to cognitive and behaviorist learning as the most effective and replicable.

As I mentioned in the introduction, I went back to my home town to practice. Rapid developments in ICT was felt even in my far away home town. Telecommunication got better with broadband and fiber optic technology as well as smartphones. Computer became more sophisticated and internet is expanding. There were advances in the field of medicine and orthopedics that are going mainstream. Data became connected and distributed at the same time.

My access to these medical information and advances is still limited to face to face conferences, which are really expensive and time consuming for me. Subscription to journals are very expensive and buying books every 3 years isn’t a sustainable endeavour anymore. I have to find an alternative learning strategy, one that suits my context for learning. I built a personal learning network based on connectivism.

I began exploring social networks for learning in 2007. I stalked discussion forums, aggregated news, curated feeds and blogged on many topics including medicine and orthopedics. I joined learning networks- colleagues, social media practitioners, and technology enthusiast to facilitate my learning.  I  help build one if there is none.  This is my Personal Learning Network..

Next-Part III- My Personal Learning Networks (PLN) and the technologies I use to support it.

I’d love to read your thoughts on these, feel free to comment below.

  1. What is your learning paradigm? 
  2. Do you implement a learning strategy in today’s fast moving knowledge economy?

References:

  1. Aguilar, R. (ND). What is #HealthXPh? [Weblog post] Retrieved from http://healthxph.net/about/what-is-healthxph
  2. Anderson, T. (2008). Towards a theory of online learning. In T. Anderson (Ed.), Theory and practice of online learning (2nd ed.) (pp. 45-74). Alberta, Canada: Athabasca University.
  3. Downes, S. (2007, February 3). What connectivism is [Weblog post]. Retrieved from http://halfanhour.blogspot.com/2007/02/what-connectivism-is.html
  4. Downes, S. (2010, May 6). Connectivist Learning and Teaching [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/Downes/connectivist-learning-and-teaching
  5. Kop, R., & Hill, A. (2008). Connectivism: Learning theory of the future or vestige of the past? International review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 9(3), 1-13.
  6. Lynch, M. (2017, August 5) What Is A Personal Learning Network? [ Web log post] Retrieved from https://www.thetechedvocate.org/personal-learning-network/
  7. Morrison, G., Ross, S., Kemp, J., and Kalman, H. (2011). Designing effective instruction. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
  8. Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism – A learning theory for the digital age. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 2(1), 3–10.
  9. Siemens, G. (2006b). Knowing knowledge. LuLu.com Electronic book..
  10. Wade, M. C. (2010,December 14). A Personal Philosophy [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://cybergogue.blogspot.com/2010/12/personal-philosophy.html

By • November 5, 2018

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Taking Control of My Own Learning | Learning The Connectivist Way – Part I

I’m taught the behaviorist, cognitivist way since childhood. Naturally, I seek learning and probably teach in the same way. This learning and teaching outlook changed with the information explosion of the 21st century. There’s too much information to learn.Information grew vast and travelled fast thanks to the affordances of Internet and communications technology. Existing pedagogies of learning and teaching couldn’t keep up with the influx of information. My context of teaching and learning needs changing if I am to be relevant in this knowledge economy.

( Authors Notes: Learning the Connectivist Way is a three part series describing my journey to self directed learning and connectivism.)

First, My Story
I grew up in Tacurong City, part of Sultan Kudarat in southeastern Mindanao. Private educational institutions provide the best available education around this area but tuition and school fees are quite expensive. Many students study elsewhere because quality of learning is thought to be better in urban educational hubs. My family could neither afford private school fees nor the cost of living in urban centers. I took control of my own learning because of this personal and social context .

Why I’m learning the connectivist way?

Changing Learning Context
I’m taught the behaviorist way since childhood. Formal school is no different, where teaching is mainly aimed at acquiring desirable behaviours or skills among students. Due to the social and technological occurrences that unfolded at the end of 20th century, cognitivism and constructivism dominated my higher education learning paradigms. Naturally, I seek learning and probably teach in the same way. This learning and teaching outlook changed with the information explosion of the 21st century. There’s too much information to learn. Information grew vast and travelled fast thanks to the affordances of Internet and communications technology. Existing pedagogies of learning and teaching couldn’t keep up with the influx of information. In medicine and orthopedics for example, some of what I learned entering med school was already obsolete by the time I finished residency training. My context of teaching and learning needs changing if I am to be relevant in this knowledge economy.

Studying Multiple Disciplines at the Same Time
I took radio electronics technician course with NMYC (forerunner of TESDA) while concurrently taking secondary education in formal school. I had extra computer classes, was a working student and a scholar while pursuing a college degree. I’m also earning teaching units while in med school. I also took organic agriculture and accounting courses while practicing medicine and orthopedics. At the heart of this learning straddle across seemingly unrelated disciplines is my belief that learning is, lifelong and interrelated. The ability to interact and traverse these interrelated disciplines gives you an edge over domain specific skills in a rapidly changing knowledge economy.

Why a Synchronous Face to Face Learning Instruction Isn’t Always A  Sustainable Path for me
The behaviorist and cognitivist way teaching and learning is particularly engrained in the medical field.  Essential medical knowledge and skills are learned and assessed this way. There’s little or no room for deviations in a standard surgical skill sets for example. Much of the aim of teaching and learning in this field is about acquiring a standard notion of a “skilled surgeon” with desirable qualities culled from experiences of mentors in their respective era.

Information explosion and developments in Internet and communications changed all this. New information rendered some of our long held medical knowledge obsolete. Technological advances increased surgical accuracy, multiplied our “working hands” and freed the surgeons from many routine surgical work. I realised there’s so much more learning to do by the time I finish orthopedic training. I’m also about to go back to my hometown to practice orthopedics.

Realising the need to keep abreast with the developments in medicine and orthopedics, I plan to continue learning aggressively while practicing orthopedics in my hometown. To keep abreast with developments in my field, I affiliated with the nearest teaching hospital, some 3 hours drive away from my place. When financially able, I attend conferences, conventions and workshops to upgrade knowledge and skills. Going back to formal training was always an option, but this is both costly and time consuming for me. I could also take on formal face to face short courses, attend face to face conferences, workshops and training but this is also costly and will take me away from my practice and earning. I figured formal face-to-face learning is costly and alone, couldn’t keep up with the rapid developments in my field. Thus, I had to direct my learning to include formal, face-to-face sessions as well as informal ones, from various sources, on and offline.

Next- Part II – Explains what Connectivism is, its salient features and why I gravitate towards it.

I’d love to read your thoughts on these, feel free to comment below.

  1. Have you ever examined your own learning context? How?
  2. How would you relate your personal learning context to the current, prevailing flux of information?

By • November 4, 2018

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Service Recovery Insights From My Single Cebu Pacific Flight Cancellation And Rerouting (Part II)

(How a well known company missed an opportunity to recover a tarnished reputation. The backstory for this insight can be found here.)

First, this is from my experience and I make no sweeping generalisations. Second, I do acknowledge the company’s good intentions in venturing low cost flights to and from our notorious place. I’ve praise them for the good service  in the past. Third, I don’t make personal comments to the individual staff as I believe this is an organisational response protocol. Service recovery is an organisational effort. Fourth, I wrote this as a learning opportunity based on my experience alone. Fifth, I am in a service sector and I cannot help but learn the kind of service recovery implementation offered especially when “shit happens” in a company. 

So what did I learn?

1. TRANSPARENCY; TAKE CONTROL OF THE SITUATION ASAP.
Not one of the team introduced themselves properly and how they are related to the company. Except for their ID and uniform, there’s no other way to know who are we talking to. There’s no central person in charge of the service recovery efforts. The shuffling of tentative questions between members of the team and the frequently changing instructions revealed this. One more thing, what exactly does the phrase “due to late arrival of your turnaround plane” mean?

2. TIMELINESS; RECOVER RAPPORT, FAST!
I don’t feel the sincerity and helpfulness of the service recovery team. No one made an effort to smile or look the complaining passengers in the eye while talking to them. One asked me bluntly “Are you taking videos sir?” with a stern look. I almost replied mean to burn her brains out but, I said “no my boarding pass is in my phone, please view it now, my phones battery will be gone soon”. She gave me an idea and I almost jumped at it, but we’re all humans. So, screw that video taping.

3. CONSISTENCY; LINES OF COMMUNICATION IS KEY
Please don’t “shout” announcements when weary customers are lined up to rebook. Its not a concentration camp right? The least you can do is approach and talk to them personally, not them going up to your desk. Customers are the one inconvenienced and your job is to re convenient them! The handouts helped but not if you can’t read or understand it. Some of us got their transportation reimbursement but others, like me, weren’t able to.

4. RESOURCES; READY SERVICE RECOVERY LOGISTICS
I can’t believe it a big brand company have to hastily set up a “whatever” desk (frankly I don’t know). Someone was looking for a laptop, then a wifi connection. Someone announced at the top of his voice that we should look at our updated booking status online using our cellphones. Not all have internet connections mind you and many passengers particularly the more senior ones, are not internet savvy. Helplessness is the last thing you want for your customer to feel.

Bottomline, these scenarios weren’t well thought out before thus the response were hilariously frustrating.

Overall, I’m not satisfied with their service recovery efforts. Cebu Pac did re route and gave an extra free flight coupon. I paid for the former with my old ticket and the latter in my opinion is a poor attempt to hide a dismal service recovery efforts. I have other poor experience flying this company but I leave those as a learning instance for me.

Of course, until there’s a better airline flying our routes on those time slots, I have no choice but to fly a Cebu Pac. Again, this is not an attack on their staff because I personally knew many who are good and well intentioned.

This call is for their leaders, I’m sure they all knew these insights I mentioned. You failed your people for not training them well for this. You failed your company’s good name the moment you left service recovery in the backseat of your business strategy. More importantly, you failed your clients the moment your SR team implemented a lousy SR protocol.

Lastly, i don’t expect this company’s leaders will even read this. But I thank you nonetheless for giving me an opportunity to experience a bad SR implementation. Clearly, I learned something new today- that’s how not to run a service recovery protocol.

Indeed, the best companies are those who shine best, “when shit happens”..

By • October 9, 2018

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