A Learner Is Like a Web

A learner is like a web because a web has infinite threads, many learners today move into a variety of different, possibly unrelated fields over the course of their lifetime. The threads are the variety fields that learners get attached to. In Connectivism: A LearningTheory for the Digital Age, the author George Siemens holds that “connectivism is the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organization theories”. In connectivism, “the ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill”. In this digital era, more and more integrated knowledge is required and learner’s ability to learn what they need for tomorrow is more significant than what they know today.

In the video, The Changing Nature of Knowledge, Paulo Vieira quotes what George Siemens says that “learning is something exclusively limited or occurs exclusively within individual’s mind”. So knowledge is really about the distribution that occurs across the entire network. And it has two components. On one hand, it’s the internal neuro network, which is within learner’s mind. On the other hand is the external network, which is our connection with outside environments. The threads on the web are like the connections between learners and outside world. In this age, we are all buried by all kinds of information. As a learner, one should be able to develop his owe relations and connections and has the power to control it.

All in all, a learner is a like a web, he has many possible threads and connections with the external world that enables himself to update knowledge for a lifetime.