The document provides an overview of the connectivism learning theory. It discusses the key principles of connectivism, which were introduced in 2005 by George Siemens and Stephen Downes. Connectivism suggests that learning occurs through connections within networks, and is enhanced by technology and constant connectivity. It promotes group collaboration and learning that occurs outside of individuals. The document also discusses how connectivism can be implemented in classroom settings through the use of social media, gamification, and simulations.

1. Theories of
Learning
JOE T. BALUSDAN

2. Connectivism
Learning
Theory

3. Connectivism Learning Theory
 Connectivism was first introduced in 2005 by two theorists,
George Siemens and Stephen Downes.
 Connectivism is a relatively new learning theory that suggests
students should combine thoughts, theories, and general
information in a useful manner.
 It accepts that technology is a major part of the learning
process and that our constant connectedness gives us
opportunities to make choices about our learning.

4. Connectivism Learning Theory
 It also promotes group collaboration and discussion, allowing
for different viewpoints and perspectives when it comes to
decision-making, problem-solving, and making sense of
information.
 Connectivism promotes learning that happens outside of an
individual, such as through social media, online networks,
blogs, or information databases.

5. Connectivism Learning Theory
Connectivism has been offered as a new learning
theory for a digital age, with four key principles for
learning:
 Autonomy
 Connectedness
 Diversity
 Openness

6. Autonomy
 The idea of autonomy is closely identified in
educational literature with concepts of choice,
control, and independence.
 The definition of psychological autonomy offered
by Ryan and Deci (2002) seems of interest:
“Autonomy refers to being the perceived origin or
source of one’s own behavior. Autonomy concerns
acting from interest and integrated values. When
autonomous, individuals experience their
behavior as an expression of the self.”
 Lurking – getting without sharing

8. Connectedness
 The concern about lurking is also reflected in our exploration of
the implications and dimensions of connectedness and
interactivity as a connectivist principle
 In terms of personality theory, the trait of agreeableness,
understood as the tendency to be compassionate and cooperative,
may also play a factor here; in the case of digital connectivism,
the ability to project agreeableness in an online environment may
in part determine perceptions of connectedness, interactivity, and
relatedness.
 Neuroticism due to troll
 Identity, extraversion, and introversion (social learning)
 Privacy, solitude, and control (settings)

9. Diversity
 The concept of diversity in education is
traditionally understood in the light of
measurably obvious differences among
learners, especially based on gender, race,
culture, socioeconomic status and perhaps
aptitudes such as Gardner’s “intelligences”
 Competence (SDT)
 Conscientiousness (input-output)

10. Openness
 Connectivist environments to date have framed openness
largely in the context of sharing resources, ideas and
expertise, and communicating and creating new
information and insights through networks. In contrast to
the educational traditions of closed lectures, proprietary
texts, and classroom-enclosed discussions, openness as
sharing in networks offers a refreshing change in
perspective and is essential as a tenet of connective
learning.
 Openness – the system of education and educational
resources should be structured so as to maximize
openness. People should be able to freely enter and leave
the system, and there ought to be a free flow of ideas and
artifacts within the system.

11. Nodes and Links
 According to connectivism, learning is more than our own
internal construction of knowledge. Rather, what we can
reach in our external networks is also considered to be
learning. From this theory, two terms—nodes and links—have
been commonly used to describe how we gain and connect
information in a network.
 In connectivism, students are seen as “nodes” in a network. A
node refers to any object that can be connected to another
object, like a book, webpage, person, etc. Connectivism is
based on the theory that we learn when we make
connections, or “links,” between various "nodes" of
information, and we continue to make and maintain
connections to form knowledge.

12. Principles
Connectivism builds on already-
established theories to propose that
technology is changing what, how, and
where we learn. In their research,
Siemens and Downes identified eight
principles of connectivism.

13. Principles
 Learning and knowledge rests in the diversity of opinions.
 Learning is a process of connecting.
 Learning may reside in non-human appliances.
 Learning is more critical than knowing.
 Nurturing and maintaining connections are needed for
continual learning.
 The ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and
concepts is a core skill.
 Accurate, up-to-date knowledge is the aim of all connectivist
learning.
 Decision-making is a learning process. What we know today
might change tomorrow. While there’s a right answer now, it
might be wrong tomorrow due to the constantly changing
information climate.

14. Connectivism in the Classroom
 It’s one thing to understand what connectivism is and
another to actually incorporate it in the classroom in
learning activities. Remember that in a connectivist
viewpoint, the new learning responsibilities shift from
the teacher to the learner. Unlike traditional teaching
methods and other theories like constructivism or
cognitivism, the educator’s job is to guide students to
become effective agents for their own learning and
personal development. In other words, it’s up to the
learner to create their own learning experience, engage
in decision making, and enhance their learning
networks.

15. Connectivism in the Classroom
Connectivism relies heavily on technology,
so the first step to creating a connectivist
classroom is to introduce more
opportunities for digital learning—like
online courses, webinars, social networks,
and blogs.

16. Connectivism in the Classroom
Social media
One way teachers implement connectivism is
through the use of classroom social media. For
example, a class Twitter account can be used to
share information, engage in discussion or
announce homework tasks. This can help boost
class engagement and open the lines of
discussion among students and teachers.

17. Connectivism in the Classroom
Gamification
 Gamification takes assignments and activities and puts
them into a competitive game to make learning more of
an interactive experience. There are many learning-
based apps and instructional technologies teachers can
use to add an element of gamification to the classroom.
One example is DuoLingo, an online learning tool that
helps students learn languages through fun, game-like
lessons. Teachers can track students' progress while
students can earn “points” for progressing through
lessons.

20. Connectivism in the Classroom
Simulations
 Simulations engage students in deep learning that
empowers understanding as opposed to surface learning
that only requires memorization. They also add interest
and fun to a classroom setting. Take, for example, a
physics class where students create an electric circuit
with an online program. Instead of being instructed via
a book or classroom lecture, they’re learning about
physics by simulating an actual physical setup.

21. Benefits
It creates collaboration.
 Within connectivism, learning occurs when peers
are connected and share opinions, viewpoints,
and ideas through a collaborative process.
Connectivism allows a community of people to
legitimize what they’re doing, so knowledge can
be spread more quickly through multiple
communities.

22. Benefits
It empowers students and teachers.
 Connectivism shifts the learning responsibilities
from the teacher to the student. It’s up to the
learner to create their own learning experience.
The role of the educator then becomes to “create
learning ecologies, shape communities, and
release learners into the environment”

23. Benefits
It embraces diversity.
 Connectivism supports individual perspectives and
the diversity of opinions, theoretically providing
for no hierarchy in the value of knowledge.

24. Educational Implication
In order to reach the 21st century learner, we have to become
21st century teachers. Teaching methods must become
collaborative and take on an integrated style, which is more
conducive to the connected global society. With the students
having all the information and answers a fingertip away, by
using networking sites such as blogs, facebook, twitter and so
on, one will creating a learning community which is continually
learning through continuous dialogue and resources. Rather
than treating learning as a process of acquisition and creation
of concepts it treats learning as a process of growth and
development of networks. A teacher blends his educator
expertise with learner construction. The learner is at the center
of the learning experience and he or she determines their own
content of the learning and develops ability to find relevant
information.

26. Gestalt Theory

27. Gestalt Theory
 The term “Gestalt,” comes from a German word that
roughly means pattern or form. The main tenet of the
Gestalt theory is that the whole is greater than the sum of
its parts; learning is more than just invoking mechanical
responses from learners.
 As with other learning theories, the Gestalt theory has
laws of organization by which it must function. These
organizational laws already exist in the make-up of the
human mind and how perceptions are structured. Gestalt
theorists propose that the experiences and perceptions of
learners have a significant impact on the way that they
learn.

28. Gestalt Theory
 One aspect of Gestalt is phenomenology, which is the
study of how people organize learning by looking at their
lived experiences and consciousness. Learning happens
best when the instruction is related to their real life
experiences. The human brain has the ability to make a
map of the stimuli caused by these life experiences. This
process of mapping is called “isomorphism.”
 Whenever the brain sees only part of a picture, the brain
automatically attempts to create a complete picture. This
is the first organizational law, called the “factor of
closure,” and it does not only apply to images, but it also
applies to thoughts, feelings and sounds.

29. Gestalt Theory
 Based upon Gestalt theory, the human brain maps
elements of learning that are presented close to
each other as a whole, instead of separate parts.
This organizational law is called the “factor of
proximity,” and is usually seen in learning areas
such as reading and music, where letters and
words or musical notes make no sense when
standing alone, but become a whole story or song
when mapped together by the human brain.

30. Gestalt Theory
 The next organizational law of the Gestalt theory is the
“factor of similarity,” which states that learning is
facilitated when groups that are alike are linked together
and contrasted with groups that present differing ideas.
This form of Gestalt learning enables learners to develop
and improve critical thinking skills.
 When observing things around us, it is normal for the eye
to ignore space or holes and to see, instead, whole
objects. This organizational law is called the “figure-
ground effect.”

31. Gestalt Theory
 As new thoughts and ideas are learned the brain tends to make
connections, or “traces,” that are representative of the links that
occur between conceptions and ideas, as well as images. This
organizational law is called the “trace theory.”
 The Gestalt theory placed its main emphasis on cognitive
processes of a higher order, causing the learner to use higher
problem solving skills. They must look at the concepts presented
to them and search for the underlying similarities that link them
together into a cohesive whole. In this way, learners are able to
determine specific relationships amongst the ideas and
perceptions presented.

32. Gestalt Theory
 The Gestalt theory of learning purports the importance of presenting
information or images that contain gaps and elements that don’t
exactly fit into the picture. This type of learning requires the learner
to use critical thinking and problem solving skills. Rather than
putting out answers by rote memory, the learner must examine and
deliberate in order to find the answers they are seeking.
 The Gestalt theory of learning came into the forefront of learning
theories as a response to the Behaviorist theory. Other theories have
evolved out of the original Gestalt learning theory, with different
forms of the Gestalt theory taking shape. The field of Gestalt
theories have come to be acknowledged as a cognitive-interactionist
family of theories.

33. Gestalt Theory
 The Gestalt theory purports that an individual is a whole person and
the instructional strategies used to teach them will help to discover
if there is anything that is mentally blocking them from learning
certain new information. Teaching strategies are used to present
problems as a whole and to attempt to remove any mental block
from the learner so that new information can be stored.
 Designing instructional strategies that take into consideration the
learner’s past and current experiences and perceptions is the key to
teaching new information. In Gestalt learning theory, when the
learners come across information or concepts that are not organized,
the mind organizes it in an attempt to enable the learner to
recognize and apply the concepts being taught.

34. Gestalt Principles
Reification (fallacy)
Reification is the constructive or generative aspect of
perception, by which the experienced percept contains
more explicit spatial information than the sensory
stimulus on which it is based.
For instance, a triangle is perceived in picture A, though
no triangle is there. In pictures B and D the eye recognizes
disparate shapes as "belonging" to a single shape, in C a
complete three-dimensional shape is seen, where in
actuality no such thing is drawn.
Reification can be explained by progress in the study
of illusory contours, which are treated by the visual
system as "real" contours.

35. Gestalt Principles
Multistability
Multistability (or multistable perception) is the
tendency of ambiguous perceptual experiences
to pop back and forth unstably between two or
more alternative interpretations. This is seen,
for example, in the Necker cube and Rubin's
Figure/Vase illusion shown here. Other examples
include the three-legged blivet and artist M. C.
Escher's artwork and the appearance of
flashing marquee lights moving first one
direction and then suddenly the other. Again,
Gestalt psychology does not explain how images
appear multistable, only that they do.

36. Gestalt Principles
Emergence
In philosophy, systems theory, science,
and art, emergence occurs when an entity is
observed to have properties its parts do not
have on their own, properties or behaviors that
emerge only when the parts interact in a wider
whole.
Emergence plays a central role in theories
of integrative levels and of complex systems.
For instance, the phenomenon of life as studied
in biology is an emergent property of chemistry.
The formation of complex symmetrical
and fractal patterns in snowflakes exemplifies
emergence in a physical system.

37. Gestalt Principles
Invariance
Invariance is the property of perception whereby
simple geometrical objects are recognized independent of
rotation, translation, and scale; as well as several other
variations such as elastic deformations, different lighting, and
different component features. For example, the objects in A in
the figure are all immediately recognized as the same basic
shape, which is immediately distinguishable from the forms in B.
They are even recognized despite perspective and elastic
deformations as in C, and when depicted using different graphic
elements as in D. Computational theories of vision, such as those
by David Marr, have provided alternate explanations of how
perceived objects are classified.
Emergence, reification, multistability, and invariance are not
necessarily separable modules to model individually, but they
could be different aspects of a single
unified dynamic mechanism.