From an early stage, I was mindful of what to read, whom to be with and the learning experiences I was about to embark. I enjoyed being alone as I loved reading, taking walks and painting watercolours. This attitude was largely influenced by my father’s work.
As I took bigger steps in life, I realised that books were no longer enough and my paintbrush was not sufficient to express my thoughts and contain them. As I moved from one international school to another, my perspective of socialisation changed thus my way of learning too. I had an opportunity to meet all sorts of teachers from different parts of the world who shared their cultural heritage with me in their way of teaching or relating with me. Some of them have become true friends till this time. As to my peers, due to the constant change of classmates for their parents’ job transitions, I learned to communicate through letters and whenever possible our families would meet to spend holidays together or half way in an airport.
Now with the onset of email, skype and chatting, suddenly, friends I haven’t met for the longest time can be easily reached. Internet has brought down huge barriers of time and space. Initially, I wasn’t keen on using networking sites such as facebook or multiply. However, I realised that people move often due to work or circumstances and this manner of keeping in touch provides a good venue to meet in cyberspace. I use chat rooms often especially in KZ where the network is slow and at times unreliable.
I am a visual learner and I learn best combining visual and audio stimuli. It’s interesting how I incorporate this vision in my teaching and workshops. I use audio books a lot and use images from the internet, iPhone or iPod to acquire knowledge. Internet has been an excellent resource for anything from recipes to blogs for researches, wikis or forums for troubleshooting technology issues.
I think connectivism is an offshoot of the social learning theory which incorporates the reality of technology and its use in expanding one’s knowledge. Even in a remote place such as Kazakhstan, internet is becoming an integral part of communication and its way of life. I can see a nomad using his iPhone to find his way or to send emails to his relatives so they can prepare food and accommodation for him. Living her confirms that my understanding that all cultures learn no matter in what form or language.
The three components of Connectivism such as Chaos Theory, Importance of Networking and Complexity and self-organisation are truly present in my learning curve at the moment. Living side by side with this culture, I become more aware that events may not seem related but for a series of events, it does make sense to them because what might be illogical to us – with a western background can be logical in this culture. I can also see that I am enriched from this culture in the same way that I am enhanced by my networking through cyberspace. Due to our lifestyles that needs to be interlinked together, complexity and the need to self-organisation is essential. For some cultures, self-organisation is not really essential in adult learning because it doesn’t exist in their mentality. The culture depends on a bigger entity like the government to organise life for them so when it no longer does its job; everything else falls apart. I can see that connectivism can be another “highway” in passing on knowledge but does it really apply to all cultures.
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