Learners of Today

   Nowadays, a learner is like a spider who is going to expand his web by combining others so that they can hunt much more food.

   You may wonder why and here is my explanation. According to Siemens G's A learning theory for the digital age, in which he put emphasis on explaining connectivism, learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources; Learning may reside in non-human appliances; Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning; Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill;Decision-making is itself a learning process. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision. From this we can see that how important the web is for learners. Like a spider, a learner have to build his own web of knowledge in the first place, and then in order to expand this web, a learner may ask for  others' help when he has already reached the edge of his ability. In this way, there will be more chance for them to get what they really need. And also, the web need maintaining so that it will always work. 

  Next, in the video, the changing nature of knowledge, Siemen further develop the concept of connectivism: The essence is that network BECOMES learning,  and the network the learners create, which can also be explained in the way of a spider. Learners learn things from the process of building their own web and combining with others'. But the knowledge learners get is not only from such process, rather their knowledge has concretely shown as the combined web they have made.

  In a word, the dynamic process of building web, the connections in human society, guarantee that our learning patterns can adapt to the changing nature of knowledge.