Week4_Critiques_Claims

**Week 4: Critiques of, and unique claims made by, connectivism** **Overview** What makes Connectivism distinct from other learning theories? That's going to be the subject of week 4 in the course -- the short version, though, is that connective knowledge is grown, not built, it is natural, not intentional, and it is inherent, not representative. We examine the differences between Connectivism, Activity Theory, Actor Network Theory (ANT) and Connectivism and Constructivism. Each of these are complex topics that require more in-depth discussion than we have time for this week. However, recognizing these theories and how they are related to each other is important in order to situate connectivism. **Readings** 
 * [|Activity Theory: Short Introduction] (YouTube video)
 * [|Introduction to Learning Theories]
 * [|What is Actor Network Theory] ...and, for a quick overview of the history of learning theories, please see [|Situating Connectivism]
 * [|What is the Unique Idea in Connectivism?] (George Siemens)
 * http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/523/1103: Connectivism: Learning theory of the future or vestage of the past?

**Seminars** >
 *  Thursday, 8 pm Eastern // : //[|Collaborate]. See time zone conversions ( [] )

**Activities** This week will be heavily discussion focused as we'll be exploring numerous broad theories. Please tag resources or reading that you encounter with #CCK12. On your blog, reflect on the main attributes of these different theories and how they inform learning and social interactions. In particular, what are the unique ideas in connectivism? Or, if you don't feel there are unique ideas, how do existing learning theories address learning in social, networked, technologically-embedded environments?