As I was reading over some of the course materials on connectivism I noticed different concepts and themes repeated throughout the material.  Words like motivation, self direction, autonomy, purpose, challenge and personal interest often reoccured.  Dan Pink, author of Drive: A suprising truth about what motivates us, talked about many of these themes. Most of the time these themes were in reference to new business models but it is actually much bigger than that.  Is it possible that there are some new business models out there that, dare I say it, the educational system can learn from?

Earlier this week I was having a conversation with some colleagues about good leadership. In our conversation we discussed leaders who often ask for input before making decisions.  Good leaders have that type of confidence in the collaboration of their team members.  Within that mind set a good leader trusts there team and gives them a certain amount of autonomy. This can be a very empowering thing for an individual that can in turn create passion, drive and purpose in their work.

The recent course material also got me thinking about my husbands “down time” activities this weekend.  He chose to spend the majority of his time rebuilding a website for a local NGO that he occasionally volunteers for.  He has a skill that he enjoys building on and applying but always with meaning.  The meaning is a key piece of the puzzle, it’s a big part of what drives him.

In my classroom I’m always trying to stay focused on meaningful art making for my students.  I have found myself getting closer and closer to that the last few years and the variety of work that my students turn out is amazing.  When I say meaningful art making I mean art making that is personal, students have some autonomy in the what and/or how.  I can provide a framework in order to help them create and reflect in the same way that artist create and reflect on culture and society.  This isn’t just in the art room though, students should be creating and reflecting everywhere, project based learning, with real ownership to create real investment. I first started looking at the art room this way when I was introduced to Olivia Gude, Artist and Educator at University of Illinois in Chicago.  In her article: Rubric for a quality art curriculum she states that  “A curriculum is not only a structure for the dissemination of knowledge; the structure and content of the curriculum also involves the production of knowledge.“  Isn’t this what we are talking about when we are talking about connectivity? Curriculum involving the production of knowledge,? https://pixabay.com/p-96100/?no_redirectPrior to being introduced to some of her educational philosophies, I didn’t realize it, but there was very little connection to the way my students were creating art and the way artists in the outside world were creating art.  In an art room that possesses some of these themes mentioned before, self direction, autonomy, mastery, purpose, challenge and personal interest, students are expressing their ideas, building their skills and exposing one another to different opinions. In a classroom where real meaning making is happening connectivism is happening.  The addition of the internet blows those connections sky high.  We are no longer confined to learning from only our classmates and our teachers.  We are now able to learn from others around the world because of current technology. This is amazing but we must hold onto the the meaning making and always focus on helping students to reach for that.  Allowing a place for students to creating meaning in their work will require our good leadership.