A Useful Social Networking Group

Joining http://community.eflclassroom.com/ seems useful to me because I will soon be certified in ESOL and there seems to be a lot of information in this site.  There are a lot of the teaching tools available on this site, one that we have already discussed in our previous Mod's.was voice thread. My favorite parts are the teach and learn tabs. I can find lessons, games, flashcards, etc. to help me teach!

Connect-ivism. What is it?

I learned about Connectivism from reading one article called "Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age" and watching one video "The Network is the Learning."

A learner is like.. its own network field. In the fact that "the network is the learning". "That network enables me to stay current in my own field." One must continuously be keeping up with current information and be able to "cast light" on the rest of that network. It's like blogging. People find out new information and want to share it with the rest of their network, and that's also where the people are learning from too! By sharing and receiving new information you are learning new content all the time, without even realizing it some of the time. "We derive our competence from forming connections." 

"Our ability to learn what we need for tomorrow is more important than we know today." This fascinates me. Years ago, who would've known we would be learning this way. Connectivism IS the up and coming way of learning. Think about it. Students no longer need a teacher, they have the internet. Now I'm over exaggerating, but a lot of information kids want to know about they can find out on their own. This is why we, as teachers, need to become familiar with things such as networking. "The starting point of connectivism is the individual." Students need to be able to connect with their own knowledge.