Wk 5 Assignment: Post An Example of a MindMap

The following visual is an example of a MindMap - made via Webspiration.  A MindMap is a way to visualize concepts and show their inter-relationships.  This particular MindMap is a crude attempt at showing the various ways or sources from which I and actual many people learn.  Here learning simply means the idea of gathering new information.  Actually it may be more accurate to say that there are two MindMaps.

The top visual suggests three ways of learning: directed informally by oneself; directed traditionally by an instructor, and learning through interaction with other people.

The lower visual lists some of the specific sources and tools used in the three ways of learning.  I included a fourth way of learning, but it's more a subconscious direction.

Some MindMaps will use flowchart type diagrams with simple lines and basic geometric designs. MindMaps aren't limited in terms of the visuals used to represent the components that make up the map, though.  If women are from Venus and men are from Mars (in other words - people are different), then there is perhaps a truth to the idea that some wil get more out of a simple design-type map while others understand the map better using "concrete" (real) images instead.  Supposedly women deal with directions using landmarks while men tend to rely upon compass directions.  Perhaps that's an overgeneralization, but it does support the need for variety and versatility. 

Connectivism - In General and More Specifically

Click on the link below to see the MindMap via Webspiration.

MindMap showing Networking for Information 

In addition to providing a MindMap of Networking for Information, we are asked to reflect on how our connections facilitate learning, change, and networking.

I guess I’m inching more into the 21^st century.  This week I’ve been doing a bit more curious exploring beyond the resources we’re using in our online courses.  In the past I’d have viewed free downloads like the White Papers I can get from IT Business Edge, or the upgrades and plug-ins, or apps and software as simply an unexpected benefit for my curiosity. (What I paid for a new computer, and OS, and software, and tuition, and etc. etc., didn’t I deserve a break?)  But this week I was watching a Vimeo tutorial for a free web-conferencing tool/site called dimdim.com.  I’m realizing that freebies like these on the internet aren’t just enticements to lure us to buy more expensive products but rather or also are a form of networking.  The underlying concept isn’t monetary value but instead sharing and communicating value, community value.  Although I’m still reluctant to reveal too much on Facebook, use an alias for my username for this blogsite, and still use my credit card sparingly over the internet, I’m beginning to understand “generation-X” and “Y’s” interest in tweeking and blogging and creating youtube videos on some of the most ridiculous topics.  It’s social networking.

     When I consider my involvement in this phenomenon, my first impulse is to think – I’m not part of that fad; “this too shall pass.”  But the truth is that in a limited way I am drawn into the network that involves 21^st century technology.  When I prepare an Application Assignment for submission or a post to the discussion board, if I can’t remember a specific detail of a certain related example, I run to google search, or bing, or  ….  Last week you may have noticed I posted links to two video clips from the 1989 movie Dead Poet’s Society that were relevant to the importance of having a different perspective sometimes and making a commitment.  Where do you think I went to track down the clips?  Google took me to YouTube which had dozens of segments from the Robin Williams movie.

    George Siemens commented in his August 19^th blog about connectivism that connectivism is inherently tied to technology.  Spirit Master mimeograph machines and Gestetner duplicating machines were the high tech teaching tools of the 50s, 60s and maybe 70s before the mass production of PCs and laptops.  Even then, though, those tools were a way to connect people through the flow of ideas.  Although I may not fully appreciate the value and ramifications of blogging and contributing to wikis – it's hard to imagine even a plumber can write about quantum mechanics or a drill sergeant respond to a post on Baryshnikov (I used google to get the right spelling of his name) –  I do have more than one foot into the 21^st century and am headed in that direction.