Wow and Wonder Week 3

Something which made me wonder while reading the Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age article was in the background section of the article. I began to wonder and have more questions circulating around the point “Do we gain knowledge through experiences? Is it innate (present at birth)? Do we acquire it through thinking and reasoning?” Being a psychology student and having taken a lifespan psychology course this is a question lifespan psychology aims to tackle. Due to the reason that if you tried to teach a two year old calculus it would be near impossible it goes to show that learning is a process which is lifelong and we are not born with all of our learning. However, I do believe we acquire it through both experiences, thinking and reasoning. There are many studies which show children learn based on experiences and I encourage you to look up the Bodo doll experiment which will really make you understand how much children pick up on things and it helps to understand how things are learned. Due to the fact that this point in the article had my brain thinking of how do we actually learn; which is still a heavily debated question, I thought wow when I read the section on connectivism. Learning is a process which is not completely under the control of an individual, we learn sometimes without even trying because we are in a world so connected. The point “nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning” really resonated with me. We can’t possibly experience every single thing this world has to offer ourselves but everyone has lived such different experiences and we all have so much to learn from each other.