Week 6 Roundup

Last week was supposed to be the week I attended the Saturday class. However unfortunately I have been really unwell and had to miss Week 6 altogether. Before writing up Week 7's session I thought I would just write down a few thoughts and put a few links from Week 6's topics, gathered from the readings and from my classmates' extremely helpful blogs :)

Week 6 was all about the leadership theories and connectivism. Sounds like it was a really great session and highly relevant for the next assignments, so it was a pity to miss out!

Leadership Theories and Styles
It is important to distinguish between theory and style. The theory is more the formal 'label' that describes a certain type of leader. Whereas someone's leadership style refers to their characteristics and behaviours and ways they react and respond as a leader.

Some of the main leadership theories are summed up nicely in this video:

Leadership styles are nicely summed up in the below table:

People will not necessarily stick to one style or theory at all times. Certain approaches are useful in different contexts, such as applying Transactional Theory in a crisis situation.

Connectivism
This is a new theory that is still being debated and not entirely accepted as yet. It suggests that learning takes place in networks, and puts forward the idea of knowledge as a networked product. There is no doubt that these days learning is a socially connected process and that a lot of learning takes place outside a traditional, formal learning environment.

This is an excellent image that gives an overview of connectivism:

This video also gives an interesting overview of where connectivism came from:

During the session everyone made an infographic of a classmate's PLN (Personal Learning Network). They used one of these three sites to create the image. All three look useful and I look forward to going back and having  a play at some point.

http://www.bitstrips.com/create/comic
http://piktochart.com/
http://www.storyboardthat.com/

At least that gives me a few things to come back to later, hopefully it's the last time I have an inconveniently timed illness!