At its heart, connectivism is the thesis that knowledge is distributed across a network of connections, and therefore that learning consists of the ability to construct and traverse those networks. …
I once played a chess player who (surprisingly to me) turned out to be far my superior (it was a long time ago). I asked, ‘how do you remember all those combinations?’
He said, ‘I don’t work in terms of specific positions or specific sequences. Rather, what I do is to always move to a stronger position, a position that can be seen by recognizing the patterns on the board, seen as a whole.’
See, that’s the difference between a cognitivist theory and a connectionist theory. The cognitivist thinks deeply by reasoning through a long sequence of steps. The non-cognitivist thinks deeply by ‘seeing’ more intricate and more subtle patterns. It is a matter of recognition rather than inference.
- Excerpts from Half an Hour: What Connectivism Is