Which is more important: How or What?

A learner is like a node in a railway system. A complete and integrated railway system makes a well connected country. With the railway system, the country as well as the people become a whole. People can go any places by trains quickly as long as they are inside the system.

Chinese Railway System

As for the learners in technological age, it is more important to build a network within which multiple kinds of information can be shared rather than just learning the knowledge it self. Just as it is said in the article Connectivism:
A Learning Theory for the Digital Age, A network can simply be defined as connections between entities. Computer networks, power grids, and social networks all function on the simple principle that people, groups, systems, nodes, entities can be connected to create an integrated whole. In this article, it introduced the concept of connectivism, which refers to the integration of multiple principles including network and other theories. There is one point, Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources that I strongly agree with. Nowadays, learning is not only happened inside one person. Sharing information makes the learning process more effective and integrated. When we as learners connecting with another node, more information resources would be poured into our own knowledge database and the system will be more integrated as a whole.

This point is also raised in the video The network is the learning. The concept is that the way we are connected to other individuals is largely responsible for our ability to continue to stay current in the field. Actually we have already use network to daily life such as keeping connected with families and friends. But how we can adopt this concept into learning is the main problem that needed to be paid more attention to. By building up a network, learners can get access to knowledge concerning to other fields easily. One point from the video that I like the best is that what we know today is not as important as our ability to continue to stay current. Because the knowledge change rapidly, we can not expect that what we have learnt can last forever. So how to learn is more helpful than what is learnt.

The Future depends on it: Learning through Technology!

As we live in the technological century, we use high-tech tools as smart phones and computers almost everyday.  Have you ever thought about using these tools in schools? Exactly how technologies improve education smartly?

This video The Future Starts Now - 2012 edition talks about how to improve education better by introducing ICT, information and communication technology, to schools. It takes Norway as an example. Norway is a country that relies on oil which is said to be gone by 2030 after which people would be living off knowledge. However students can hardly be motivated to study just by the thought of rescuing the nation. While ICT can make school more relevant and motivating to students, there will be less dropping out of school and naturally creating a knowledge-base community. ICT provides students with multiple ways of study. Instead of reading a book, seeing an animate picture like a DNA molecule will actually help students visualize the knowledge and understand what they are learning.

This video gets me thinking how we can improve education better by using high technology. Teacher is the one that stay closest to students. Though ICT has become the 5th basic skill in school curriculums, more support is still in need, for example teachers' push. What we do in class will make a huge difference. We as teachers have the responsibility to improve the students' motivation.

One interesting thing about this video is that there are drawings appear synchronously with narration which makes it more understandable and entertaining as well as attractive.

There is another video A Vision of 21st Century Teachers 2010 that provides us many possibilities that students can have with the help of 21st century teachers. By using new technologies, study becomes more effective. Students can access to the knowledge with more resources and get involved in a global community. Multimedia bring in different learning styles.

Find out more about how technology change future learning!