Ok, this blog post is very late… This week we looked at online education theory. Lots of information, but here are some of my impressions for the week:

• Clair Major’s video on learning theories was excellent. I loved the overview and will examine these approaches to leaning in more detail in the future. On that note, the cmap that was optional reading is a really great primer on the subject. On the subject of cmaps – this seems like a great web 2.0 tool. Check out the home site here: http://cmap.ihmc.us/. Clair was so right that beliefs drive our actions. What do I believe when it comes to educational theory? Not a simple answer…. I’m not sure I even have a clear answer since POT has opened up my mind to so many new ways of thinking about teaching and learning.
• Lisa Lane and Jim Sullivan simplified my musings above with their clear introduction to learning in “Adventure in Online Pedagogy”. With their definition, I can see that I have spent much of my teaching career as a “dynamic” lecturer (sorry for my shameless lack of modesty, but I’m trying to make a point) following the instructivist model. I do make forays into connectivist model of learning in my classes, but not enough. I’m also intrigued with connectivism and the creation of learning networks. I’ll address this model more with George Siemens’ article below.
• Ok, this is one of my favorite articles from the semester. A excellent defense of a liberal education. All of his points on how we acquire and use knowledge in my opinion are right on. I like War and Peace….. Take a look at Larry’s blog, his article on How to End Western Civilization is really insightful – http://larrysanger.org/.  I’m also following him on Twitter – ok, so I like the co-founder of Wikipedia. 
• The last article we read was from Mr. MOOC, George Siemens. His discussion of connectivism was very interesting, but he seems to be positive that “connectivism” is the future of education. This “sage on stage” is not that convinced that all instructors will become curators. I do like the concept, but I think that encompasses much of what we do already as instructors in the classroom. 

In the end, I think that experimenting with these different approaches will make us better instructors. While one model might not be a panacea, I think that making the effort would be good for our students and ourselves. We just have to constantly keep sight of our goals.