Ally (2008) summarizes four schools of learning, i.e. behaviorist, cognitivist, constructivist, and connectivist learning theories and their implications on online learning. The first three learning theories are used frequently in traditional learning, while the connectivist theory is a relatively new one. According to the connectivist theory, learners cannot transfer their knowledge and build new knowledge (Kop & Hill, 2008). What has surprised me most is that “the learners have to unlearn what they have learned in the past and learn how to learn and evaluate new information.” (Siemens as cited in Ally, 2008, p. 19).
In my opinion, people learn new things every day, relate them with their previous knowledge and accumulate them together for future use. However, in online learning, due to the rapid change of technology, there are new softwares and information coming up very often, so people do need to unlearn some obsolete knowledge so that they can adopt the up-to-date information. For LLN teaching and learning, the challenge for the teachers is how to make the learners give up their old knowledge and their old ways of learning, and to encourage them to use the up-to-date technology to learn.
Ally, M. (2008). Foundations of educational theory for online learning. In The theory and practice of online learning (pp.15-44). Retrieved from http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/99Z_Anderson_2008-Theory_and_Practice_of_Online_Learning.pdf
Kop, R. & Hill, A. (2008). Connectivism: learning theory of the future or vestige of the past? International review of research in open and distance learning. 9 (3). Retrieved August 5, 2011 from http://www.irrodl.org
I think you picked up something insightful in the connectivist theory, ie, that teachers have to help students unlearn old information and software and deal with the constantly streaming new information and features that appear,I believe, as updates. Microsoft is clever this way, I think. It uses the constructivist approach in introducing updates. It builds on the old software so we are never really learning anything that is completely new.
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