Personal Blogs

I have always read and heard that society is dynamic and different all the time as seen by rapid changes in the world. In sub Saharan Africa, society has rapidly changed from simple to modern and now getting complex. We once had communities, tied by kinship and social obligations, now we have associations tied by education, residential area, politics, professionalism and ability to generate wealth. Each stage of change calls for a unique and specialized form of education content, skills and pedagogy to address the challenges and carter for the developments that accrue from change. Moreover, while society moves forward, there are still epochs of traditionalism that it maintains and call for integration in the new system. In the digital era education and learning, there is a need to operate within multi-dimensional, multi-disciplinary and multi-level connections which gives the basis for the theory of connectivism.

 In this way, Siemens (2005) in the theory of connectivism argues that nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning. And the ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill. In the digital era learning, it appears everyone and everything learns and is taught simultaneously thus a need for full time connectiveness to allow this inclusiveness. I have a feeling, the rules of the theory of connectivism at times surpasses or challenges the traditional norms of education and learning. Among these are matters of copyright, tuition fee and student identity. The flow in and out of the networks and phases which are not definite cannot allow extreme structures. It is based on this reality that the OU module of H817 of Innovations and Openness in eLearning comes in handy. It is handy because it keeps the supremacy of the curriculum but also glorify technology and  connectivity in learning.