Week1_Intro

**Week 1: Introduction to Connectivism** At its heart, connectivism is the thesis that knowledge is distributed across a network of connections, and therefore that learning consists of the ability to construct and traverse those networks. It shares with some other theories a core proposition that knowledge is not acquired, as though it were a thing. Knowledge is, in this theory, literally the set of connections formed by actions and experience.  This week will serve as an introduction to connectivism and provide an overview of core assertions made by the theory. **Readings** > **Live sessions** **Activities** A few simple activities for this week: 1. If you haven't done so, review the orientation tutorials and resources for CCK12: http://connectivism12.wikispaces.com/Orientation_Resources  2. View the recordings and complete course readings for week 1. 3. As an introductory week, this is a good opportunity to define how you will participate in the course. We encourage you to set up a blog (on a service such as [|wordpress.com] or [|blogger] . This course is different from what you've likely experienced in the past - it's open and distributed. It's important for you to define where you wish to begin forming (or extend an existing) digital identity. If you are not comfortable with open learning activities, please notify the course facilitators. Arrangements for non-public participation will be made. 4. Use the CCK12 tag in anything you create. Our course tag is: #CCK12 It is especially important to use this tag in Diigo and in Twitter. That is how we will recognize content related to this course. We will aggregate this content and display it in our newsletter. Yes – your content will be displayed in the Daily. That's how other people will find it.
 * George Siemens, [|Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age]
 * Stephen Downes, [|What connectivism is], and [|What Connectivism Is Not]
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: verdana,arial,sans-serif; text-align: left;">Rick Schwier [|interview of George Siemens] on connectivism.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: verdana,arial,sans-serif; text-align: left;">George Siemens presentation on [|Defining Connectivism] and [|Comparing connectivism with other learning theories]
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: verdana,arial,sans-serif; text-align: left;">Stephen Downes presentation: [|A quick introduction to connectivism] (ustream) ( [|Spanish], [|German] ) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: verdana,arial,sans-serif; text-align: left;">
 * Thursday, 8 pm Eastern Time. Elluminate: https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/launch/meeting.jnlp?sid=2008104&password=M.9D02C4469B0C9783A1C6E60A6CD262 (all live sessions in the course will be held in this virtual classroom). See time zone conversions (http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=CCK12&iso=20120126T20&p1=250)

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: verdana,arial,sans-serif; text-align: left;">If you are using a blog, Flickr, or a discussion group, share the RSS feed. We will offer a separate post on how to find your RSS feed if you don't know how. But if you know how, please tell us your feed address. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: verdana,arial,sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: verdana,arial,sans-serif; text-align: left;">Submit your blog to gRSSreader so we can track and share your activity. You can use the form here: [|Add your RSS feeds by adding a feed here]  <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: verdana,arial,sans-serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: verdana,arial,sans-serif; text-align: left;">5. Post your weekly reflection on your blog.