Thesis and antithesis

Behind every educational concept an opposing notion is waiting for recognition. Despite their avowed objectives, however, academic debates do not always encourage the discussion of opposing views. A review of sessions at the December 2011 Online Educa Conference illustrates that point and others about academic meetings. Opposing viewpoints may be valid in specific situations and eras, however, and dynamic shifts between opposing views can be justified. For example, the recently argued notion of connectivism, while amply predated in the educational literature, has been timely in indicating the current need for reassessment of asynchronous educational methods. Meanwhile its logical nemesis, disconnectivism, awaits a timely moment to be proposed. The article suggests that these two polar opposites could justify one another as a psychological continuum of learning activity, while distinguishing connectivism from the earlier cybernetic theories of Gordon Pask.