Now many may associate a virus has something negative, but it has the ability to spread beyond itself with amazing speed and ferocity. A learner has the capability to be a wildfire in the dried out forest of tediousness. The individual cannot be undervalued for what he or she can achieve. Each person's hopes and dreams can drive a society in innovative and creative ways. Society cannot flourish without individuals and the talents they possess.
"Connectivism is the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organization theories" (The Changing Nature of Knowledge) cannot be more evident than when talking about a virus. There is an organization, a flow to the chaotic process of infecting at an exponential rate. This is the hope of educational theory: that an idea of an individual will explode beyond him or herself and change the surrounding social context.
It is true that a virus is ineffective without spreading throughout the body. An individual is also useless to the educational process if he or she does not comprehend for him or herself, and then share in the process of productivity.
Individual should spur collectivity, and the collective society should encourage individuality.
3 days ago
I find your analogy of a learner as a virus which has "the ability to spread beyond itself with amazing speed and ferocity" to fit very well with the theory of Connectivism since if the virus does not spread or a learner does not "share in the process of productivity" neither advances to its maximum capacity.
ReplyDeleteDr. Burgos