A learner is like a cell phone

According to materials the 590 syllabus gave, the image of connectivism in my mind becomes clearer and clearer. It is really a creative concept to me and I agree with this idea. I think a learner is like a cell phone today. What cause my thought are two reasons: updating and communication.

There is one key principle of connectivism is “Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known” (George Siemens). I think this is very important. If an advanced learner does not have ability or desire to keep learning, he will be a loser finally. The world is changing every day, staying means retrogressing. I also watch the video about network learning, which shows influence of network on learning. Nowadays we more rely on some software to learn knowledge or exchange ideas. Actually we did communication naturally in the past by letters and phone calls, but now we extend it to available technology like blog. It means that connecting oneself to others and the outside world is a important elements in learning. Idea in the video has similar stand with the article: “What we know today is not as important as our ability to continue to stay current.” “The way we are connected to other individuals is largely responsible for our ability to continue.”

In the result, the function of cell phone is communicating with others to exchange ideas and share information. This is more like what a good learner needs to do. Also people want to have a cell phone which can be updated constantly in order to keep pace with the times. That accord with what I talked just now, good learners should use more convenient and effective ways to improve themselves.

Article: Connectivism

Video: The network is the learning