联通主义学习理论及其最新进展

The Learning Theory of Connectivism and its Latest Development

联通主义学习理论作为Web 2.0、社会媒体等技术快速发展以及知识更新速度日益加剧背景下催生出的重要学习理论,在过去十年获得了快速发展并成体系,但是联通主义学习理论的相关观点比较分散,目前缺乏系统的梳理,人们对联通主义学习理论的认识因此难以深入。本研究对联通主义学习理论相关研究人员的论文、著作、博客以及cMOOCs开展过程中的观点进行了梳理和总结。研究发现,两位创始人中,乔治·西蒙斯(George Siemens)的学术著作较多,观点表达更学术,更易接受;斯蒂芬·唐斯(Stephen Downes)的观点表达更自由和哲学化,富有启发性。该理论最广为接受的八条基本原则在广度和深度上都有了扩充与发展。对联通主义的哲学取向、知识观、学习观、课程观、教师观、学生观、学习环境观以及交互观等进行研究总结发现,联通主义学习理论的观点已经相对成熟和成体系。在三种联通主义实践(简单联通、社会化联通和复杂联通)中,只有复杂联通主义实践真正体现了联通主义的精神实质。虽然人们对该理论存在四大质疑与批判(是学习理论还是教学法、与社会建构主义理论有何区别、核心概念是否有问题、有何特色和创新之处),但该理论能够对其作出满意的回应。本文希望能够帮助研究者和实践者深化对联通主义学习理论的认识,并开展更加深入的实践。

Connectivism,as an important learning theory produced by the rapid development of Web2.0 and social media technologies and increasing knowledge update speed,has seen rapid development in the past 10 years,and becoming a relatively systematic theory.Although ideas of Connectivism are distributed on the Internet,there is no systematic review and summary,which makes it hard for us to get a deep understanding on the learning theory of Connectivism.This study tracked the research progress of Connectivism and summarized the ideas which are distributed in paper,books,blogs and artifacts.It is found in this study that there is difference betweentwo pioneer＇ s ideas of Connectivism.The idea of George Siemens is more academic,and easier to accept by others,while Stephen Downes＇ idea is freer,philosophical,and enlightening.The most famous eight principles of Connectivism give us a clear picture of how Connectivism has developed in the past 10 years.This paper also discussed nine perspectives of Connectivism and their logical relationships.The philosophical orientation of Connectivism not only helps us understand Connectivism deeper from philosophical perspective,and also provide a reference of how to evaluate and analysis the learning in Connectivism learning contexts.In Connectivism,knowledge is distributed and connected;learning is the process of connection and network building;courses are open;teachers are the facilitators of the learning,and they influence and build the network;learners are both self- and network— guided,and they are the knowledge creators;the learning environment focus on personal learning environment and personal learning network building;interaction is the key and core of Connectivist learning Based on our reviews,we conclude that the theory of Connectivism has been relatively mature and systematic,and its perspective of knowledge and learning has been guiding our perspectives of course,teacher,student,learning environment and interaction.There are three forms of practice related to Connectivism（Simple,Social and Complex）,and we believe only the Complex Connectivism practice forms truly reflect the main idea of Connectivism.There are four big critics of the Connectivism theory（is it a learning theory or just a pedagogy？ What is the difference between Connectivism and social constructivism？ Are there some problemsin its core concept？ What is the unique idea in Connectivism？）.At the end of this paper,the authors proposed several critical questions which should be answered in the future research.