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

• • Part I  – Narrates how a learning context led me to take control of my own learning.
  • Part II – Explains what Connectivism is, its salient features and why I gravitate towards it.
  • Part III- My Personal Learning Networks (PLN) and the technologies I use to support it.)

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?