Meaningful Connections | It's About Learning

Experts connect dots not just collect dots

Dwayne Harapnuik — May 12, 2014 — 3 Comments

In a TED talk and more recently in his blog post Connecting dots (or collecting dots) Seth Godin argues:

Without a doubt, the ability to connect the dots is rare, prized and valuable. Connecting dots, solving the problem that hasn’t been solved before, seeing the pattern before it is made obvious, is more essential than ever before.

Godin also asks why then do we spend so much time collecting dots. We overwhelm our learners with so much data, ask them to regurgitate this content in tests, and simply focus on the delivery of content instead of helping our learners make meaningful connections. While Godin has coined the notion of connecting the dots rather than collecting the dots, the idea of developing connections within a conceptual framework was first intro ducted to me by my colleague Robert McKelvain, Ph.D. at Abilene Christian University in 2010. McKelvain suggested that the difference between an expert and a novice is that an expert has a fully developed conceptional framework.

In the diagram, the main concepts are represented by the larger blue dots and the dotted lines between the concepts represent the connections that the expert has developed as they have expanded their conceptual framework. The expert not only relies upon their full conceptual framework, they are able to enter into this framework from many different perspectives. They can see all the pieces and understand all the connections and when dealing with new information they have a much broader base in which to understand and encode that new information—which makes them a more adaptable, efficient, and effective learner and problem solver in their areas of expertise.

In contrast to the expert, the novice may not only have a minimally developed conceptional framework, they may even have some of the concepts wrong, miss the connections, and not fully understand all the connections that they do see. If we understand that learning is the making of meaningful connections then the role of the expert teacher is to:

Provide the context for learning which includes introducing the fundamental conceptual framework components.
Create the environment where the learner can start to make meaningful connections between those concepts.
Model the learning process needed to: make those connections, add new concepts, and see the patterns that lead to solving problems.
Mentor the novice in building and expanding their conceptual framework.

In a nutshell, the expert models what it takes to become an expert learner and take ownership in the development of one’s own expertise.

One of the biggest challenges in this process is the expert’s bias, which is the inability for an expert to see the challenges that a novice or beginner faces. This can have significant ramifications in areas where subject matter experts with limited teaching knowledge and experience are tasked with teaching. Subject matter experts have often forgotten more than a novice even knows and unless they are also expert teachers and have developed the conceptual framework of an expert teacher, they can have difficulty understanding the challenges that the novice is experiencing. Therefore, teacher training and professional development will be crucial if we hope to move from the notion of collecting dots to connecting dots.

In Learning, Meaningful Connections collecting, conceptual framework, connecting, connections, expert, Learning, meaning, novice

What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains–It is our choice

Dwayne Harapnuik — April 23, 2014 — Leave a comment

We do have a choice as to how we will use the Internet. If we choose to be continuously distracted and respond reactively to the prompting of our email or social social media we can then will miss out on meaningful knowledge growth. However if we choose to be proactive and take time to focus on one thing at a time we can make the meaningful connections that are central to our ability to learn.

In Meaningful Connections, Video - Wednesday Watchlist attention, brains, distraction, focus, information, interne

Connecting the dots vs collecting the dots

Dwayne Harapnuik — April 15, 2014 — 3 Comments

The difference between an expert and a novice is that an expert has a fully developed conceptional framework and a novice not only has a minimally developed conceptional framework they may even have some of the concepts wrong and not fully understand all the connections. If we understand that learning is the making of meaningful connections then role of the expert teacher is to provide the context for learning which means they may provide the broad conceptual framework and also create the environment where the learner can start to make the meaningful connections between those concepts. Ultimately the expert mentors the novice in building their conceptual frame work. If you consider the above graphic this notion can be simplified as the process of connecting the dots.

For the past several weeks I have been considering and exploring the best way to convey this idea so when I read Seth Godin’s post Connecting dots (or collecting dots) this morning I was immediately struck by the elegance and the simplicity of his argument. I copied and shared the entire post because it deserves repeating:

Without a doubt, the ability to connect the dots is rare, prized and valuable. Connecting dots, solving the problem that hasn’t been solved before, seeing the pattern before it is made obvious, is more essential than ever before.

Why then, do we spend so much time collecting dots instead? More facts, more tests, more need for data, even when we have no clue (and no practice) in doing anything with it.

Their big bag of dots isn’t worth nearly as much as your handful of insight, is it?

The teachers role is then to help the learner to connect the dots not to simply collect the dots. Enough said!

In Learning, Meaningful Connections Conceptual, conceptual framework, expert, framework, mentor, novice

Individualized Instruction vs Personalized Learning

Dwayne Harapnuik — September 16, 2013 — 2 Comments

David Warlick offers the following table as a summary of the comparison of individualized instruction vs personalized learning. Perhaps the most important factor to note is that with individualized instruction education is done to the student and with personalized learning education happens as a result of what the learner does. When we consider that a major factor in effective learning is an individual’s ability to make meaningful connections, personalized learning is the approach that promises to provide the best outcomes.

Don’t let the notion of individualization in the name fool you into believing that this a learner centered approach. Despite the name it is still a teacher and authority centric approach that emphasizes the regurgitation of information to be assessed through standardized measures

Consider the following table:

Source: 2¢ Worth

In Learning, Meaningful Connections individualized, instruction, Learning, personalized

Fixed Vs Growth Mindset = Print Vs Digital Information Age

Dwayne Harapnuik — April 5, 2013 — 7 Comments

If we really want to take advantage of all the opportunities that the digital information age offers, we need to move away from fixed mindset to growth mindset thinking. Carol Dweck, Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, the author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (Random House, 2006) and the article Even Geniuses Work Hard posits that if students with a Fixed Mindset believe that intelligence is an inborn trait and is essentially fixed they:

Tend to view looking smart above all else;
May sacrifice important opportunities to learn—even those that are important to their future academic success—if those opportunities require them to risk performing poorly or admitting deficiencies;
Believe that if you have ability, everything should come naturally;
Tell us that when they have to work hard, they feel dumb;
Believe that setbacks call their intelligence into question, they become discouraged or defensive when they don’t succeed right away;
May quickly withdraw their effort, blame others, lie about their scores, or consider cheating.

In contrast Dweck explains that students with a Growth Mindset believe that they can develop their intelligence over time and subsequently will:

View challenging work as an opportunity to learn and grow;
Meet difficult problems, ones they could not solve yet, with great relish;
Say things like “I love a challenge,” “Mistakes are our friends,” and “I was hoping this would be informative!”
Value effort; they realize that even geniuses have to work hard to develop their abilities and make their contributions;
More likely to respond to initial obstacles by remaining involved, trying new strategies, and using all the resources at their disposal for learning.

The fixed mindset, or as it is more often referred to as innate intelligence, was the widely accepted theory of cognitive development until 60’s when UC Berkley professor Mark Rosenzweig replicable studies made the case for the environmental impact on brain development and plasticity. It is now widely accepted that the brain remains plastic and adapts to our constantly changing environment which is foundational to Dweck’s argument for the growth mindset.

This notion of adapting to a constantly changing environment is also important when we consider our move from a static print information age to the dynamic digital information age.

The emphases of the print information age and print culture include:

development of systems of cataloging and retrieval
emphasis on memorization
information as primary, analysis as secondary
centralization of instructional space
learning as hierarchical, “objective,” and categorized
standardization paramount

Therefore, the greatest challenge of the print information age is finding existing or fixed information. A learning environment that is based on the print culture will emphasize memorization and regurgitation of standardized information.

In contrast the emphasis of the digital information age and digital culture include:

systems of communication & interconnection
emphasis on participation
analysis, critique & “remixing” as primary
information as a “commodity”
centralization of creation & production
emphasis on community & social interaction

The greatest challenge of the digital information age will be assessing Information and making meaningful connections between existing information and new information that is developed. A learning environment that is based on digital culture will emphasize, creation, communication, and participation as primary and hold information simply as a commodity or a product of interconnected human endeavours.

Considering that we have moved into and have been in the digital information age for at least the past two decades we need to consider our roles as educators and look long and hard at the changes we need to make to our learning systems. The following questions are central to how I will be responding to how I see my role as an educator in the 21st Century:

If I imagine my primary job as a teacher is to serve information, am I helping solve the current informational problem or make it worse?
And given the vast complexity of the informational network, if I insist on my centrality, does that establish or harm my credibility as a teacher?
If assessing information – and the wisdom & experience that requires – is the central challenge of the current informational age, are teachers more or less necessary?

Helping learners assess the vast amounts of information that is available and giving them necessary skills and abilities that they need to make meaningful and useful connections is more important than it has ever been. Learning is an active and dynamic process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their current/past knowledge. The making of meaningful connections in the digital information age is key to the learning and knowing.

We need to move from fixed mindset thinking and the passive educational environment of main lecture points, rubrics, individual competition and standardized testing to growth mindset thinking of active learning, dynamic interactivity, critical and analytical thinking, collaboration and meaningful projects.