I’ve watched a video of Stephen Downe’s presentation when he was visiting New Zealand and read the prescribed articles within the Connectivism and Connective Knowledge online course for Week 3. The topic for this week is the nature of Groups and Networks. Whereas George Siemens asserts that Groups and Collectives are types of Networks, Stephen Downes differentiates Groups from Networks. For a number of reasons, Stephen’s more radical conceptualization of the way people organize themselves is thought provoking too. In Australia, we have experienced degrees of ‘disconnection’ within our society that was an unfortunate product of the collective attitudes of specific empowered groups. I am referring to the issues of ‘the Stolen Generation‘ and the ‘Forgotten Children and Child Migrants‘. In this context, I do advocate recognition of the rights of the individual beyond the interests of groups. Reference: [http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/connectivism/]