I had a brainstorm yesterday. For those who may not know, amongst my other talents here at ASU as a Writing Specialist, I also have a background as a librarian. There is a quote that has stuck with me. I don't remember it verbatim, but the gist is something to the effect of, "The role of the Librarian is assimilating information and disseminating it to others." I was also taught that it is okay not to know everything, you just need to know where to find the answer.
It struck me that these statements could also be applied to the connectivism theory and creating our own personal learning network.
Food for thought and comments: As a member or "node" on the network, are we responsible for the accuracy of the knowledge that we share with others? Also, how do we discern the accuracy of our sources??
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Yes, we are responsible for the information that we share. Unfortunately, Siemens does not explore the ethical aspect of Connectivism, but it is critically important.
ReplyDeleteTrust is one of the key foundations of a connection among nodes in a network. Most people will not willingly connect with those whom they do not trust. Most of us will break or ignore a connection with a network node that proves untrustworthy, and it hardly matters whether or not the untrusted node is merely inept or intentionally malicious. Sharing unreliable information erodes the trust necessary to maintain healthy connections with others. Any node that undermines its connections becomes isolated from its network, and in a network, an isolated node is a dead node.
Keep in mind that trust is not always founded on the veracity or even reliability of information shared, but on the perceived value of the information shared. Thus, in some groups, outright lies will not undermine trust if the information shared is something the group already wants to believe.