Life is Like a Bowl of Spaghetti

Reviewing George Siemens’ learning theory of Connectivism inspires much food for thought for educators. After all, it is engrained in our teaching philosophies, regardless of presumable differences, that we all aspire to meet the learning/social/emotional needs of our students. The catch is: students of the 21st century are rapidly changing form. These students are already different than the students we learned about 6 years ago when some of our professional/academic endeavors as educators began. Children of the 21st century are connected interactively in person, but also highly connected online. Therefore, it is only natural and expected that our teaching strategies can align with the needs of these highly technological students.

However, it isn’t merely figuring out a way to reach out technologically to these students. Although, that is definitely a wonderful teaching strategy. However, before we can say “Web Quest,” we need to consider the learning component itself. That is, how these students learn. George Siemens’ article is refreshing in the sense that he takes core foundations of learning: Behaviorism, Cognitivism, and Constructivism, and respectfully highlights a need for a new learning theory: Connectivism. He is not discrediting the theorists before him, however, he is recognizing a new understanding within learning; a learning that is highly interactive and distributed across social networks. Learning can no longer be viewed as an individualistic component, but rather a highly collaborative experience that sharpens all participants involved! Siemens writes:

“Realizing that complete knowledge cannot exist in the mind of one person requires a different approach to creating an overview of the situation. Diverse teams of varying viewpoints are a critical structure for completely exploring ideas. Innovation is also an additional challenge. Most of the revolutionary ideas of today at one time existed as a fringe element. An organizations ability to foster, nurture, and synthesize the impacts of varying views of information is critical to knowledge economy survival” (Siemnens, 2005, p. 8).

So let us view that idea of “synthesizing the impacts of varying views of information” as creating the perfect spaghetti sauce recipe. There are a few solid foundations that every spaghetti recipe needs: some form of a tomato-based sauce (marinara sauce) and a type of pasta/noodle. These are the core foundations of knowledge that a particular organization or social network of students would have in common....otherwise their association or would have never been formed, most likely, in the first place. Once the common belief or knowledge is established, or made known, each participant can bring their own special ingredient to the table. That “special ingredient” is each student’s personal perspective, life experiences, opinions, and questions on the given topic or “pasta” of the discussion. Yes, each student’s thoughts will definitely spice up the spaghetti sauce. Will any two recipes ever taste exactly the same if ingredients are altered? Of course not! Just as two person’s understandings of the exact same topic can never be exactly the same. Our brains are wired and then developed based on each of our own experiences, even if it is just to a small degree.

In the video “The Changing Nature of Knowledge,” Siemens recognizes a need for “network-model learning.” The world’s understanding of knowledge used to be one that happened “within one’s mind. Now it is a distribution across the network" (The Changing Nature of Knowledge) Siemens recognizes attaining knowledge and learning as two components: internal and external learning. The internal learning deals with a person’s individual neurons and how they respond to the stimuli around them. New connections are being made in the brain to make the information meaningful to the individual. However, the external learning is recognized by Siemens as even more influential to the student. He recognizes the external learning as the connections that are made between people. Siemens stresses the idea of staying current with different viewpoints in order to continuously grow and reflect. That is when true learning happens.

So do you see where Spaghetti comes into play? Each learner brings his/her own viewpoint to the recipe. This is the student’s unique ingredient. He or she may still agree with the core foundations on which the given social network started, however, he/she can give a viewpoint that will give the relationship a whole new flavor! Sometimes a recipe may taste sweet, sometimes it may be spicy. No two recipes are the same because no two thinkers are identical. The beauty of a spaghetti recipe, just like learning, is that it is original and is subject to change at any time. The more one experiments, the more likely one is to enhance their learning. The same is true for cooking spaghetti!

Bon Appetit!!