{"id":3757,"date":"2012-03-22T02:59:55","date_gmt":"2012-03-22T06:59:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/?p=3757"},"modified":"2013-08-02T18:09:37","modified_gmt":"2013-08-02T22:09:37","slug":"connecting-with-connected-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/22\/connecting-with-connected-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Connecting with Connected Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kids<\/a>I\u2019ve had about four hours so far to wrap my head around the buzz about Connected Learning<\/a>. That\u2019s how long it\u2019s been since the Teachers Teaching Teachers webcast<\/a> I attended this evening. (I\u2019ll add a link to the archived show when it\u2019s available.)<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll admit that I came to the discussion with some misconceptions. Perhaps the most incorrect misstep was my belief that when people talked about \u201cconnected,\u201d they meant using technology to reach pedagogical goals. I thought it was going to be yet another way of describing what I\u2019ve known by names such as computer and writing, techrhet, and (most recently) digital humanities.<\/p>\n

I was wrong, and I\u2019m still trying to come up with my short explanation of what connected learning<\/em> is. Elyse Eidman-Aadahl opened up the discussion with a description of the concept, but I admit I was just trying to keep up. When your definition is so far away from what\u2019s correct, it takes a little time to catch up. (I think we can officially say I was mired in cognitive dissonance.)<\/p>\n

Elyse mentioned Mimi Ito, and it was on Ito\u2019s post on \u201cConnected Learning<\/a>\u201d that I found a video and some additional details about what the term connected learning<\/em> means. If you\u2019re as new to this as I am, go read Ito\u2019s post and watch the video. Here\u2019s how Ito summarized what connected learning is:<\/p>\n

\n

In a nutshell, connected learning is learning that is socially connected, interest-driven, and oriented towards educational and economic opportunity. Connected learning is when you’re pursuing knowledge and expertise around something you care deeply about, and you\u2019re supported by friends and institutions who share and recognize this common passion or purpose. (Mimi Ito, \u201cConnected Learning<\/a>\u201d )<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The key buzzwords mentioned during the webchat included engagement, out of school opportunities, breaking down batch thinking, and passionate learning. And there was HOMAGO (Hanging Out, Messing Around, Geeking Out).<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t quote me on this, but from what I can tell so far, connected learning is what I\u2019ve always thought learning is supposed to be. It\u2019s about building, and supporting a learning community that lets kids engage with education according to their own interests, building their own knowledge, and reaching out to (yes) connect with other learners. If I understand, the notion of connected learning is really the same notion I had in mind when I dropped out of the elementary education major and went on another path (but I\u2019m going to save that story for later).<\/p>\n

I know that I\u2019m still having a hard time putting what connected learning is into words, but I realized that I do think that I know what it looks like. It\u2019s those kids trying to find out what that fish is like in the picture at the top of this post. And I think it’s all these kids:<\/p>\n

\"Lee<\/a> \"connecting<\/a> \"connecting<\/a> \"Kids<\/a><\/p>\n

And I\u2019m pretty sure, it\u2019s none of these kids:<\/p>\n

\"SJSA<\/a> \"Exam\"<\/a> \"Taking<\/a><\/p>\n

And this kid…. well he is desperately trying to connect. I hope the connected learning pedagogy spreads quickly enough to reach him.<\/p>\n

\"When<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[Photo: All images are creative commons from Flickr. Click on each image for the original and more information. This post has been cross-posted on the Digital Is website<\/a>.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve had about four hours so far to wrap my head around the buzz about Connected Learning. That\u2019s how long it\u2019s been since the Teachers Teaching Teachers webcast I attended this evening. (I\u2019ll add a link to the archived show when it\u2019s available.) I\u2019ll admit that I came to the discussion with some misconceptions. Perhaps […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[336,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-connected-learning","category-teaching-with-digital-tools"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pqzI8-YB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3757"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17125,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3757\/revisions\/17125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}