Book: Teaching Crowds - Learning and Social Media

This book is available as an open access pdf. Here is an extract from chapter 2 on Social Learning Theories.

Holistic approaches to learning are agnostic as to method. Drawing from connectivist and older models, they valorize diversity and the socially distributed cognition afforded by the read-write Web and other publishing models, accepting that every learning experience is unique, and every learner’s needs are different. Connectivist approaches, for all their extensive reliance on networks of people engaging socially, are at heart focused on the individual—specifically, the individual’s learning. Holistic models embrace the fact that it is sometimes more important that a group learns, rather than an individual, especially in collectivist cultures (Potgieter et al., 2006). Holistic models recognize that, sometimes, guidance is what is most needed, that people can learn without direct engagement with others and, even that transmittive instructionist models of teaching have a place. p.61.

In the next post I will explain the emphasis placed in the quote.


Jon Dron and Terry Anderson (2014) Teaching Crowds: Learning and Social Media, AU Press.

My source:
ITFORUM mailing list 
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