Thoughts: Situated Connectivism

Reflecting on a Coursera MOOC about Jazz Improvisation (taught by Gary Burton!) led me to imagine a design scheme for extending learning activities beyond a Learning Management System (LMS).  Specifically, I would expect a course that was designed to initiate students into a knowledge domain (in this case, Jazz) to introduce what Activity Theory asks for: the Tools, Roles, and Community associated with participating in the course knowledge domain. 

This design scheme relies on some of Connectivism's arguments (and John Seeley Brown's arguments) that knowledge and knowers are not separate.  Where there is a real-world practice community for the course content, interacting with this community using the learning objects and tools it favors should be part of the course, or at least emulated within the course. This puts the community, rather than the learner, at the center.

Massive amount of jargon: not recommended save as a discussion starter among instructional designers.