- [Narrator] Humming.

Special thanks to Lee
LeFever of Common Craft

for granting permission

to use his brilliantly simple design.

This, my friends is a true story.

A student at 21st Century High School

is studying American Psychology

as part of his Contemporary Issues class.

But, it could be any topic.

He attends class three days
a week, two days online.

He doesn't have a textbook.

His teacher almost never lectures.

She is a student of connectivism,

a theory that presumes
that learning occurs

as part of a social network

of many diverse connections and ties.

This network is made possible

through various tools of technology.

The tools themself are not as important

as the connections made possible by them.

This teacher empowers her
students to take control

of their learning and make new connections

with others who will strengthen
the learning process.

Before our student embarks
on his learning adventure,

he must spend some time building

his personal learning network.

He practices finding valid websites

about the American psyche.

He is taught how to assess
and validate information

to ensure its credibility.

He uses Google Scholar and
his school's library database

to search for scholarly peer
reviewed articles on his topic.

When he finds a website
or article that is worthy,

he posts it to his
social bookmarking site,

a place where people share URLs

they have bookmarked on specific topics.

He finds other people
who have bookmarked sites

about the American psyche

and he shares the sites he has found.

Next, he searches for blogs
that others have written

about the American psyche.

He understands that blogs
often reflect opinions

rather than cold hard facts.

Based on what he has learned so far

about the American psyche,

he can choose to comment on these blogs

and offer his own informed
point of view for discussion.

In order to manage these blogs,

he uses a reader to subscribe to them

that way he can tell when
a blogger posts an update.

Once our student builds a knowledge base,

he creates his own blog
to post reflections

about what he has learned.

His classmates and virtually
anyone in the world

can visit his blog and comment
on his informed opinions.

21st Century student loves his MP3 player,

but there's more on that
device than his favorite music.

He subscribes to a number
of audio and video podcasts

that support his learning through iTunes U

he has access to thousands of courses

recorded by actual professors
from Stanford, Yale,

Cambridge, Open University
and countless others.

In fact, he finds a lecture from a course

called Social Psychology
offered at UC Berkeley.

He literally has access to the
best professors in the world.

While researching his topics,

he stumbles upon a documentary
about the American psyche.

A Dutch born Canadian immigrant filmmaker

crosses America to interview
Americans about their homeland.

Our student emails the filmmaker

who agrees to video
conference with the class

to discuss the documentary.

By the way,

our student knows a few
tricks for finding experts.

He also knows that it never hurts to ask.

People usually love to share
their knowledge and expertise,

especially with students.

As a few weeks pass,

our student is busy reading
the up to the minute

virtual textbook he has created

in his social bookmarking
account and RSS reader.

His learning project culminates

in the creation of his choice.

Perhaps a video he posts
to a video sharing site

at American Psyche Wiki

from which others can learn

or a voice thread to
which others can comment.

Regardless of the medium,

he is sharing his
organization of this knowledge

with the rest of the world

so the next student of the American psyche

can learn from his hard work.

The 21st Century student network

includes a wide range of connections.

Each one a new learning opportunity.

There's more to connected learning

than what you see in this project.

Think that it's just the beginning.

Information management
will be a major challenge

in the 21st century.

RSS makes it possible
for anyone to subscribe

to just about any changing
content on the internet.

New synchronous communication tools

are emerging nearly every day.

All of these tools make it
easier for our student to connect

with new contacts and learn effectively

from those he already knows.

So, why does he even
need a teacher you ask?

Good question.

She is the one who teaches
him how to build this network

and take advantage of
learning opportunities.

She offers guidance when he gets stuck,

she shows him how to communicate properly

and ask respectfully
for help from experts.

She shows him how to differentiate

between good information and propaganda,

how to vet a resource,

how to turn a web search
into a scavenger hunt

and get excited when he
finds that Pearl of content.

She helps him organize those
mountains of information.

In her heart, she hopes that
when he leaves her class,

he'll maintain his learning network

and use it to navigate his future

and creatively solve the world's problems.

These are the skills he will
need in the 21st century.

This has been a Connectivism Production.