Nodes+and+Connectors

In a similar way to the read/write paradigm, nodes and connectors are foundational to the experience of personal learning environments and networks. If you think about it, all networks are composed of nodes and connectors. Nodes are devices, such as computers, routers, switches, servers, etc. and connectors are the actual transport material (cables, or in the case of wireless, the electromagnetic spectrum). Likewise, to personalize the metaphor, all human networks are composed of nodes and connectors: the nodes being people (primarily) and the connectors being the various technologies that connect them, such as computer networks, phone networks, tin cans and strings, etc. In the connectivist view, “Learning (defined as actionable knowledge) can reside outside of ourselves (within an organization or a database), is focused on connecting specialized information sets, and the connections that enable us to learn more are more important than our current state of knowing.” 1 For connectivists, the connections we make to knowledge and other learners is more important than a classical view of knowledge, since the various ‘bodies of knowledge’ which are increasingly overlapping, multi-dimensional amalgams of individuals, databases and clouds of messages moving between them are so dynamic that we cannot hope to internalize their various permutations in the way that a classical education sought to internalize the accepted canon of cultural artifacts. Our knowledge now resides (partially at least) ‘out there’ in the networks, and our knowledge is more accurately gauged by the totality of our connections than by our individual, internal knowledge ‘store’. Nodes and connectors are also the primary components of the brain and nervous system. Nerve cells function as nodes, and the axons and dendrites that connect them serve as connectors. As a paradigm, this pair runs the gamut from the smallest units of information exchange and storage to the largest. At all scales of learning environments and networks, nodes and connectors are the fundamental constituents for information and knowledge exchange and flow. 1 Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age – George Siemens ([])