Connectivism

Our everyday life is increasingly surrounded by technologies.  While connectivism is relatively new in the study field of learning theories, it accelerates the thinking approach for current and future generations where behaviorism, constructivism, and cognitivism can not satisfy explaining the mechanism of learning. It gives us the insight to navigate the rapidly expanding online learning environment fueled by digital transformation. 

Motivations

If "chaos is a new reality for knowledge workers" (Siemens, 2015), how can we find our footing in connectivism? With too many variables and options, chaos can cause overwhelming feelings.

But Nigel Calder defines chaos as a "cryptic form of order" (ScienceWeek, 2004). Chaos is the breakdown of predictability evidenced in complicated arrangements (Siemens, 2005) that state the meaning exists. The learner's challenge is to recognize the hidden patterns through meaning-making and forming connections. Learners' capacity to form connections between sources of information and thereby create useful information patterns is the way out of overwhelming in the mind.

Possible applications

eLearning / Massive Open Online Courses / gamification / webinars / blogs / social networks / machine-based learning, non-human appliances (WGU, 2021) / management and leadership / organizational knowledge management / media, news, information 

Let's layer connectivism on learning French by Duolingo. The use of online materials in the blended learning process is vital for foreign language learning as a supplementary platform for effective learning (Sozudogru et al., 2019). Duolingo aligns with Siemens and Downes' eight principles of connectivism (WGU, 2021). 

1) Learning and knowledge rest in the diversity of opinions.

Learners benefit from Duolingo's in-person events, interactive stories, and podcasts. These additional formats help learners with real-life conversation and comprehension of reading and listening.

2) Learning is a process of connecting.

Along with commonly used phrases like "Puis-je avoir une tasse de café ?" (Can I have a cup of coffee?), learners also encounter quirky sentences such as "Duo vert veut manger dix croissants" (Green Duo wants to eat ten croissants). Unexpected content stimulates learners to create a chain of connections from preexisting schema. 

3) Learning may reside in non-human appliances.

Learners interact with non-human Duo (Green owl) and humanized characters who navigate through the course.

4) Learning is more critical than knowing.

To personalize learning, the machine learning algorithms are working on the backend. This is a very different approach from the conventional language learning from the textbook in which everyone touches the same standardized contents,

5) Nurturing and maintaining connections are needed for continual learning.

Explicit instructions are available, such as tips for grammar, pronunciation, and helpful phrases.

6) The ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.

We learn the mother tongue by weaving connections during childhood. Duolingo's implicit learning model allows learners to discover patterns independently without focusing on language rules. 

7) Accurate, up-to-date knowledge is the aim of all connectivist learning.

Languages change constantly. Duolingo produces blogs to dig deeper into certain aspects of learning languages. Many of them are written by linguistics researchers.

8) Decision-making is a learning process. What we know today might change tomorrow. 

Duolingo offers 38 languages as of 2022. This gives us the flexibility of switching from one language to another according to the learner's goal. If I plan to travel to Finland in a couple of months, I may pause learning French for a while and take Finnish to the level of basic conversation. This flexibility encourages life-long learning.

Speaking of language, I would like to zoom out a bit to expand the topic from language learning to the system of language translation technology. Will language learning remain an important part of international communication? Or will it be unnecessary when translation between languages in the near future is taken place by Artificial Intelligence(AI)?

George Siemens stated in episode #328 of the Leading Learning podcast. "Our future is one of human and artificial cognition—one where we’re going to be doing knowledge work together with a technology, and that technology is going to have a certain type of agency" (Cobb & Steel, 2021).

Imagine when humans start offloading linguistic capabilities to artificial cognition—as it's already happening in auto-translation in writing and recorded speech—if our spoken words can be simultaneously translated with high accuracy to any language on this earth, what influence will it have on the neuroscience of our brain? Will we adapt to learn faster and communicate better with each other once a language barrier is removed? Does AI streamline the organization of complex communication nuances and eliminate misunderstandings? Will we gradually lose the capacity to tap into the cultural and historical contexts behind the languages? 

Connectivism has its value in the fluid nature of digital transformation. But before blindly delegating cognitive tasks to technology, we should use one of the best functions of our mind—imagination to consciously preserve magnificent human capabilities.