By Stephen Downes
Dec 02, 2025
Transcript of Inpost Connectivism, Distributed Learning and Digital Innovation in the Amazon

Unedited auto-generated transcript from Google Pixel 8 voice recorder. Sorry about all the line breaks, I'm speaking slowly to assist the translator

Okay, so thank you for inviting me to speak to the eighth Amazon distance education Congress. Uh, it's a pleasure to be here. Um. And I can't see you or hear you. I can see comments. I believe. I'm seeing comments from people who are watching online, at least in the stream yard application. Um, but uh, if people have comments or anything by all means, please let me hear them or see them or in some way. Uh, be able to communicate. Sorry, I forgot.

I forgot I was being translated. Sorry about that.

Uh, okay.

Let's go! So? This talk will connect the principles of connectivism, which is a philosophy that I've been working on for a number of years. With networks learning and the opportunities and challenges of the digital Amazon.

Now, I'm sensitive that. I'm based here in Canada. I live in Canada. And I don't have a lot of experience with Brazil and have yet to see the Amazon River. So, I'll speak at a fairly high level of abstraction.

So, we're going to look

At. Distributed or distance learning practices? Open resources, local networks. To see how they can enhance. Education, Innovation, and. Um. Entrepreneurship. In context, like the Amazon context.

And.

Yep, it's all right. And I want to put it in the context of what we saw this week during this conference.

For example.

Santos on how connectivity can break down historical barriers of geographic and social isolation.

And

National and international events, such as the new degree or sorry decree regulating distance education. And the recently completed. Cop 30 conference.

We've seen presentations

On how different actors. Institutions, managers, teachers, and more. Get together to form Dynamic ecosystems.

And we've seen

Things like the role of assistive Technologies in promoting accessibility and inclusion of students.

We've seen

Presentations. About the role of assistive Technologies in promoting accessibility and inclusion of students.

And that's just.

Sorry, that's just a small sample of what we've seen.

I've divided

The overall presentation into two.

The first part on reshaping pedagogical practice. And the second part on application and Innovation.

And we get

Six sections overall.

We get six sections overall. Yeah, it's all right.

So, let's begin.

So? Artificial intelligence has taught us a lot over the last few years.

We've learned

What it can do and what it can't do.

We've seen text-based models show us that learning is more than just remembering text.

Even if

Remember all the text in the world, there's still more we need to do.

We need to understand.

There's a difference

Between just following a recipe. And understanding why the ingredients were chosen the way they were.

Learning is not

Just remembering it is understanding.

The recent

Rise of artificial intelligence has also Vindicated some major principles of connectivism.

I

Identify four major areas here.

Well, that

Seemed like more than what I said.

Oh, okay, that's fine. That's fine. I was just about. Okay. So, yeah. Distributed cognition. Means that knowledge is not located in one place, but in many places all at once.

Knowledge is

Based on recognizing patterns that operate through networks rather than memorizing rules.

Knowledge is

Based on recognizing patterns in networks rather than being based on rules.

It's, it's hard

For me to re repeat what I said because it doesn't always come out the same. Um, emergent understanding is the idea that. We can perceive these patterns through interactions. In a network.

And because

It's based in networks, not principles and rules, we can see that multiple perspectives give us multiple explanations.

Um.

Not really. I'll I'll try saying it again slightly differently. Um. Because it's based on networks. And therefore, individual perspectives. We

Get

Multiple explanations.

So, what

Is understanding? What do I mean by that?

As you

May guess by now. I mean, not rules, facts, and remembering. But explaining, contextualizing, and connecting.

Understanding

Is not based on internal templates. Or schemas or models, but participation in Dynamic networks.

And this has become

Clear in the topics that you have been discussing in this conference.

Let's look at

Distance education or distributed education more closely.

So?

I used the term distance education and distributed education more or less to mean the same thing.

And.

And I mean any form of learning that takes place outside the classroom or learning institution.

In all

Cases. It creates a concrete Arena, a practical application. Where understanding needs to be defined, supported, and evaluated.

Distance education we see? Most clearly. The learner challenges that are not just academic but physical, social, technological, and cultural.

We've learned a lot.

From doing education at a distance.

We've learned.

Of the danger of treating learning simply as information transfer or memorization.

So?

In distance education, especially. We find ourselves forced by circumstance to go beyond direct instruction.

Learning

Depends as much on what the student does as what the instructor does.

And we learned that Learners succeed when they form meaningful connections when they collaborate when they use tools and work in their own context.

We've also learned

A lot offering massive open online courses.

We've learned

In distance learning environments that no one person knows everything.

The usefulness

Of something I say. Depends on you. Uh, The Listener.

I do not simply

Transfer knowledge from my brain to your brain.

The knowledge

Grows or emerges from the interactions between us.

Because we are

Working. In a communications Network. We co-create understanding.

Creating

Understanding depends on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

This is because.

Any explanations that we can offer are contextual. What works in one domain might not apply in another?

The challenge

For distance education? Is? To obtain Clarity. About how abstract Concepts are learned in distributed settings.

We

Try to look and see what we have in common.

In the

Context of this presentation, that's a particular challenge.

I wish I could see you hear you get feedback from you.

The distance educator tries to take. What we find in common and turn it around so that we can see ourselves from that perspective.

When we

Talk about? Causes and complex environments for concept complex systems.

It becomes

A challenge. To see how? Causes can be explained through interaction rather than simply described through transmission of text.

Academics

Sometimes talk about this in terms of localization or knowledge translation.

But we understand.

But to produce this understanding, there needs to be this interaction.

So, I guess, right

Away, we're being challenged.

Another thing.

About the current environment. Is the increasing role being played by artificial intelligence?

Uh, another challenge is the increasing role being played by artificial intelligence.

Traditional

Educators, those who work in a classroom or an institution. Are learning that students can just use AI to submit tests and assignments.

Distance.

Educators have always understood this sort of risk.

There have always been alternatives for distance students.

If they weren't using artificial intelligence, they could turn to their brother or their boyfriend or their mother.

Distance

Educators understand that it's difficult. May be impossible to exercise control at a distance.

Ultimately.

Although there's always a need to certify the most assessment, sorry? Ultimately. Although there's always a need to certify the most important assessment has always been self-assessment.

The student

Learning at a distance. Needs to form a greater awareness of themselves and their understanding of the material.

When we

Educate? We need to ask, what are we measuring?

In a lot of work being done. In online and distance education. People depend on rubrics and competency Frameworks.

They Define

The knowledge and Skills a student needs to have and the evidence that would show they have that Knowledge and skill.

But today, more

So than ever. We need assessment that captures the students understanding.

That's different

From just repeating back. The information that we're given.

Understanding.

Means the ability to articulate explanations.

Where

These explanations apply in specific and different contexts.

Where these explanations use metaphors and illustrations. To show awareness of the patterns that form them.

Showing

Understanding means showing a capacity to make connections across domains.

It means showing

Skill in navigating novel environments and contexts.

We also. Saw many presentations about inclusion, accessibility, and cultural diversity.

Long day.

So some of the

Inclusion efforts described this week. Assistive technology. Accessibility for the deaf. Digital inclusion. An inclusion of black? Vera diora literature.

Why

Does this even matter?

First. It's because understanding is inherently plural.

What I mean by that is

There is never a single way of understanding, but always many ways of understanding.

In addition.

Understanding, expressed as comprehension. Means, all us all-encompassing. Which drives social inclusion.

Understanding.

Understood as comprehension. It means being all inclusive. Are all-encompassing, which drives social inclusion.

Explanation

Drives context. Explanation creates a need. To know what the context is.

Um.

The question posed in an explanation is never simply. Why did this happen?

The question

Posed is always? Why did this happen instead of that?

It's like.

If you see a bush growing? You ask, why is a bush growing there? The answer depends on the Alternatives.

Why is

The bush growing instead of a tree?

Why is a bush growing instead

Of nothing?

Why is a bush

Growing in the middle of the house?

Why is this kind of bush growing?

And so on.

The Alternatives depend on what we can imagine might be the case.

And

Our imagine depends on our perspective or our point of view.

And that's why we

Want to include. And that's why we want to include. As many points of view as possible.

So, that's what I

Mean, when I say understanding is social and contextual.

The meaning

Of a question? The meaning of an explanation emerges through interaction with these different cultural, geographical, and linguistic networks.

Interaction with these, uh, cultural geographical and linguistic networks.

Connectivity

Breaks down the barriers in society.

Cheer. For example, geographic isolation, social inclusion inequalities.

And it allows

A more comprehensive understanding to emerge from broader participation.

Diversity

And inclusion also support and require multiple modes of expression.

I

Identify two aspects of this here.

First in the pedagogy and technological support. To help? With. Modes of comprehension, different representational systems.

And also

Mechanisms to include diversity of perspective, including language, culture, and region.

In

Connectivism. We talk about something called the semantic principle.

The semantic

Principle is based on an understanding of how networks are successful.

Uh.

It's based on an understanding of how networks are successful.

That's okay,

It's hard. It's a hard job. I totally get it. Um, success. Means capacity to learn.

And that can be described. If you wish in physical terms like growth and adaptation.

The psychology. Um. In terms of neural networks. That's known as plasticity.

It's what helps

And network shape itself and grow in response to some stimulation.

There

Are four elements of the semantic principle.

Autonomy, which means each member in the network organizes themselves.

People decide for themselves.

What they believe, what they value, what they want, what they need.

What tools

They use? What? Diversity. Means that each node each person in a network represents a distinct context or a distinct perspective. A point of view.

We each have

Our own experiences.

And it's our experiences. From which we learn.

Openness.

Means being receptive to input from outside the network and from each other inside the network.

An

Interactivity means that knowledge is emergent. Or is based on patterns in the network as a whole.

We often

Think of knowledge as something transmitted from one person to another person to another person.

But that's just

A signal or an artifact.

The knowledge is the totality of this.

So for assessment.

When we're talking about? Diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Diversity,

Equity, and inclusion.

It's not based on rules or

Frameworks.

Assessment itself is a process of interaction and adaptation.

Dave Cormier used to say success in a course is whatever you think success in the course is.

The development

Of understanding?

We ask. We assess whether the development of understanding is Intercultural.

Is it

Interactive and does it adapt?

What that means is?

Can we see? It represented an individual communities.

And can we see individual communities represented in the understanding?

We are

Inclusive if we can apply. Concepts across. Different socio-cultural modalities across different languages into different communities.

Now, let's move to

The subject of innovation.

It's another topic that has been discussed in this conference.

Participants have talked about

Innovation Frameworks, such as be thinking or minimal viable product development.

These methodologies

Redefine Innovation as creative, iterative, and user-centered.

They

Contrast with top-down prescriptive methodologies, such as ADI or waterfall.

This model.

This model of innovation breaks down the client server model, where one person provides and another person receives.

It's a

More interactive process where both sides create and both sides receive.

We see this

Expressed very frequently in Canada in indigenous contexts.

The

Phrase. Is used. Nothing about us without us.

So we can think

Of. If you will. Understanding as iterative explanation. Leading to Innovation as problem solving.

Hey,

Innovation gets talked about a lot.

And it's usually represented in a simple structural linear model.

An

Academic comes up with a new idea.

An

Entrepreneur takes it to Market.

And government,

And the financial Community move it to commercialization.

These steps,

And even the people are always thought of as separate.

Innovation

Is thought of as solving predefined problems in predefined problem spaces.

Innovation is thought of

As solving predefined problems in predefined problem spaces.

Innovators

Are told to ask. Potential customers. What keeps you awake at night?

But we're.

We're seeing models. Of innovation. That operate through much greater interactivity.

They're based on

Iterative prototyping. Try something. Try it again. Try it again.

This process results in systematic insights.

It illustrates problems you didn't know you had and solutions you didn't know. You could find.

And

Solutions he didn't know. You could find.

You discovered new and emergent

User requirements.

And you might say. If you're forcing a solution onto a community? You haven't understood the problem.

We see this

Expressed in connectivism.

We see that Innovation is pragmatic and contextual.

It's situated in specific

Environments for specific people.

It's interactive, the result of working cooperatively.

And is distributed. It's not just

One thing, but it's distributed through a variety of people and a variety of different physical artifacts.

And it forces

Us to innovate differently.

To explain. Why we made the decisions we did?

To

Understand people from their point of view.

To reframe

And change both the problems and the solutions. When the environment changes.

And to integrate

Feedback. And develop new models reflexivity.

In a

Connectivist world, we're never looking at just one thing.

We're looking at multiple problems from multiple perspectives.

And it

Illustrates. How difficult it is. To model. High level abstractions in networks.

Or distributed

Causal reasoning. When a whole Community thinks that one thing causes another.

Or when there

Are multiple causes for a particular effect.

Or.

For when we don't know what the cause is.

And. The difficulty of understanding group creativity and collaborative understanding.

The difficulty of understanding group creativity and collaborative understanding.

So?

How do we assess innovation in this environment?

Do we see?

A consistency of patterns and principles across different. Domains like health, education, and public services.

Can we describe

And explain Solutions? Using metaphors or analogies.

And the point

Of that is. To be able to represent in an in an intuitive way. Different communities. The reasoning. Or the pattern of thinking?

There was

Also discussion of digital digital sovereignty and sustainable governance.

This

Blends several Concepts together.

Some of the

Public policy themes we heard this week included the. Post cop 30 environment. Digital sovereignty in Amazon and interoperability and public services.

Once again, we see

The same pattern.

Public policy requires understanding as a collective, institutional, and social process.

We're never

Looking at one thing we're looking at the system as a whole. At somebody else doing that.

Public policy

Is based. Often on values.

It's important to understand

That no single principle can Define public policy.

Because the

Community is in network, there will be a range of principles a range of values.

I list.

List a number of them here.

And these are all expressed differently in different contexts.

That's why public policy is hard.

Policies

Depend on interconnected institutions.

Knowledge in

Public policy emerges from shared deliberation.

And decision

Making involves distributed expertise.

When these aspects? Are not followed. That's where we see public policy begin to fail.

Public policy

Public policy is about more than rules that administrators need to learn.

We might say.

The public policy expresses intent.

But this, this

Intent is realized in different ways in different environments.

To realize

Intent. At an administrator must be autonomous.

In order to understand

Complexity. To navigate through networks. And to integrate a local knowledge.

So

The sorts of questions we ask? Of public policy or questions like these?

Was the

Policy based on cross-sector communication and interactive decision making?

Does

It? In other words, represent emergent knowledge rather than a single point of view.

Is there a

Story describing how these values or how these abstractions can be actionable can actually be implemented in local contexts?

And can we describe the patterns and principles involved in metaphors?

Can we describe the patterns

Or principles in metaphors?

In other words.

You know, the language that makes the underlying pattern easy to grasp?

All right,

We're almost there.

It's really hard, isn't it?

Yeah. So, for those of you who are listening, thanks for hanging in there.

So, we're looking. At academic workflows.

Topics

Discussed at the conference include research methods, submission practices, and professional development.

Overall, it

Presents a perception.

Of understanding as something that is disciplined, documented, and reflexive.

As something that is disciplined, documented, and reflexive.

And that's

A bit hard to reconcile. With a picture of knowledge that is based on interaction in a network.

And that?

Do you

Think of academic networks?

We

Can think of different aspects of them.

There are the artifacts that are produced by networks.

There are the structures that

We find in academic networks.

And there are the practices. Undertaken by academics working in networks.

These all

Taken together lead us to an understanding of academic networks that is more like connectivism. Than a static and row-based process.

Lead us to an understanding of.

Of academic networks.

Based

More on connectivist principles than on rigid rules and Frameworks.

Uh, as a

Researcher, this comes up for me a lot.

People always want? My research to conform to various? Research methodology.

But. In a reactive and interactive environment. You can't Define on a single. You cannot depend on a single fixed methodology.

It's a different

Kind of model.

It's a model

That sees understanding as a community process.

It's a

Model where understanding develops through discursive exchange by talking to each other.

In

An academic environment, especially. Meaning and comprehension is mediated by tools.

And with each

New connection in each new tool. Our interpretation.

Our interpretation changes and evolves slightly.

It's a

Model. Academic comprehension and explanation. Historically contingent, methodologically diverse and inherently social.

So, how do

We assess Academia?

It's not

About. Publication counts or citations.

It's more about.

How do I want to put this? It's more about how academic principles. Expressed as rigor emerge. It's more about protocol. Than standards.

It's about.

How reasoning is negotiated and Justified?

We ask.

Did a practice or a theory? Emerge. From. A community discussion.

Can we see that

Discussion? Was that discussion transparent?

Were we able

To be part of that discussion?

Were

Individual and distinct perspectives or points of view respected.

Can we

See? How that method or Theory would apply in our own.

Is there a way

I can express it in my own words?

Is there a

Way? I can show that it's true or prove that it's

False.

So, just a couple

Of final remarks.

Uh. We often hear in all of these domains. About objectivity and subjectivity.

It's that

Old debate between the modern and the postmodern.

But.

Knowledge and understanding are based on pattern recognition.

And patterns are

Both objective and subjective at the same time.

There's no real sense to be made of the distinction between objective and subjective methodology.

You're on mute?

And. This applies to all of the domains that I've talked about tonight.

Communities and Social Development. Are probably best understood from this perspective.

Because we are

Engaged in both knowing about them and being in them at the same time.

Thank you everybody!

So much for your time and your patience.

And I would appreciate either now or later. Any comments, questions, or opinion