Engagement 4 It's learning Jim but not as we know it!

Connectivism: Learning as a skill rather than an outcome.

The Thigh bone is connected to the knee bone.....

My personal experience of this is in my profession as a Chiropractor. In many years gone by a medical practitioner was expected to keep his knowledge in his head and to attend seminars and do appropriate journal reading to provide continuing information updates. It is no longer possible to do this. The advance of medical knowledge is so fast that it would be more than a full time job to just do the required reading. We just have so much information now. We created specialisation to deal with this, but even now that is being overwhelmed.

What to do?

I think that Siemens has a very strong point and it is reflected in real world outcomes. My favourite doctors now are the ones with a lap top on their desk who research information for you as they go, printing relevant information for you and directing you to high reliability websites to help you to be better informed. Base knowledge is essential and we still need to recognise where the stethoscope and thermometer goes, very embarrassing to put it in the wrong orifice. But what do we do with gathered information particularly if it is beyond our working knowledge. It is common to outsource to specialists in data interpretation such as professional radiologist readers or to research online. The trick now is who do you connect to and how?

Technology, creating the problem and being the answer.  The NBN is touted as necessary for this style of information gathering, holding and sharing especially in the medical profession and linking remote areas with world class diagnosticians.
Classroom.
In the classroom environment a topic could be chosen; by the class (relevance) and all the collective knowledge of the class about the subject is gathered. Then postulate the question, is that all we can know? (engagement) Where and how can we find out more? Class suggestions. Then ask where is the latest thinking and information to be found? Texts, books, magazines, internet? Set different groups on to different modalities? Who found the most? Ask the question: If we had more people helping us search would that help us? Once more knowledge is found, what do we do with it? can we add to this? How can we do this? Where do we do this? Who do we want to know and how do we make sure they can find it?

Source

The following is a list of thoughts and questions inspired by the reading that I will get to answering as time permits.

• Content, who has control of what I learn? curriculum, family, culture, informal learning?
• Self awareness; how do I learn? how am I intelligent?
• Relevance
• Engagement
• Boredom, motivation, attention span, critical thinking, analysis.
• Education as entertainment?
• In a fast information world where everything changes and is rapidly discarded where is personal and life meaning; are our children happier and do they have stronger sense of purpose and self worth?
• What is the value of delayed gratification in learning?
• How quickly should we form an opinion, what is a considered opinion and then how quickly should we share it?,
• Work ethic and determination, always in style?
• Critical analysis of information, what do I choose to believe.
• ICT in creating learning environments.
• Web, Wiki, Blog, face book, video media, discourse pages, i pad
• How IT astute are primary school children, how astute do they need to be.