Connectivism: A New Way to Learn

According to theorist, George Siemens:

“The domain of learning is significantly hampered by progressive revisions of what it means to learn, to know, and to understand. A subset of connectivism, network forming, is presented as an accurate model for addressing how people learn. The test of any theory is the degree to which it solves problems and incongruities within a domain. The shortcomings of behaviorist, cognitivist, and constructivist ideologies of learning are answered in light of learning as a connection-forming (network-creation) process.”

Online political discussion on SNS

The social networking population as a whole has grown larger and these platforms are now utilized by politically active individuals of all ages and ideologies to get news, connect with others, and offer their thoughts on the issues that are important to them. While many traditional newspaper publishing companies are losing their clients to the internet, social websites such as Facebook are capturing new members every second. It appears that such websites are becoming the most effective means of distributing private or public information. Citizens can express their political opinions by being supporters of different political parties or presidents on Facebook pages and also discuss actively their point of view on political events.In the study, “Getting political on social network sites: Exploring online political discourse on Facebook”, it shows that the social networking sites are better for active place for online political discussion since they allow various point of view including opposing views than other computer-mediated discussion.

From Place to Space

This December 2010 piece explores the use of web 2.0 in the most recent general election. Observing the use of blogs, YouTube and MySpace, among others, the article links the use of these utilities by candidates, supporters and critics to the prediction polls from Gallup. Given the nature and use of these utilities, the findings are somewhat unsurprising. Blogs mirror traditional media (television, newspapers and radio) in their influence, primarily due to their platforms for discussion and inspection.

Non-profit Organizations and Politics

The article I examined looked into the internet and how it impacts the democratic process. The article is interested in investigating about what if any impact the internet has had on non-profit organizations and the way they focus and think when it comes to their organizations. The research stems from the fact that although the internet is a social tool it has not really been utilized when it comes to political and social change.

Voice of the Internet

If there is one thing this class has made apparent, it is the proliferation of technology into all facets of life. With that, politics is no different. The internet is quickly becoming the source of information for the curious. In the study cited this is quite apparent even in the small sample size collected following the 2008 US presidential election. Just in the four years between the 2004 and 2008 elections there was a doubling in usage of the internet as a source of information for politics.