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Love this. My heart is really in distance education. I am going to keep this as a great resource to share with colleagues.

This article is an outstanding review by Mark K. Smith of Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger's theories of social learning through communities of practice. It gives a great overview of the theoretical foundations as well as additional explanations of those theories.

This article outlines the theory and practice of communities of practice, and discusses the idea that learning is social and comes from of our experience of participating in daily life. The authors identify a variety of types of CoPs that all humans are engaged in, even if they are not formally identified as such. A CoP is defined along three dimensions: what it is about, how it functions, and what capabilities/resources it has produced. Also emphasized are the importance of the relationships formed between the people within the CoPs - hence, the community in CoP. Stemming from that, they extend the idea of CoPs to apply to the classroom culture and environment and discuss the need for educators to cultivate a similar idea to best facilitate learning among their students.

The point that I learned from this article is that communities of practice go beyond the acquisition of knowledge and skill. They build relationships where people within the community work together to share their skills, knowledge, and interests they have learned in order to complete new or more complex tasks. We learn best through active participation.

Articles like this one make it clear that we are actively involved in communities of practice every day, without even realizing it. This is largely due to the internet; now, if one needs to reach out to another person for advice on baking, for example, one can use online forums or message boards to connect to others in their community of practice. This was not possible before the internet, or at the very least it was difficult to accomplish so easily. I'm interested to learn a little more about what COPs might have looked like before the internet.

Learning is social and takes place by participating in daily life. Learning takes place situationally in communities of practice. These communities of practice exist all around us: home, work, school, etc. As we pursue our goals within our groups, learning occurs. Members off s community of practice (CoP) are united by common activities and by what they learn through participating in those activities. A community of practice is defined by three factors, "what it is about," "how it functions," and "what capability it has produced." For a community of practice to be effective, it needs to "generate and appropriate a shared repertoire of ideas, commitments and memories." There also need to be resources like documents, tools, procedures, and a shared vocabulary. The the developers of this theory, Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger, focused on the kinds of "social engagement" that caused learning to take place. People join groups and initially learn from the periphery. Eventually, they become more proficient through their participation as they move toward the center of the group. The situation in which the learning occurs has a significant effect on the learning.

After reading through this article, I kept coming back to this quote: "Rather than looking to learning as the acquisition of certain forms of knowledge, Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger have tried to place it in social relationships - situations of co-participation." These are ideas I try to integrate into my classroom on a day-to-day basis because healthy social relationships can enhance learning experiences due to students becoming vested in goals. Students are more willing to put their feet outside of the box, without fear of sharing and participating in these learning environments---and they become active inside members of these groups, rather than outside onlookers.

This is a great introduction to constructivism. Please take the time to watch the video in the introduction. The article explains the link between today's knowledge and yesterdays information while stressing the fact that knowledge and information is ever changing. Constructivism allows the investigator to to take control of learning and bypass the slow or reluctant process of updating information as it changes. I really liked this article, it sparked some ideas for my personal finance class I am rewriting curriculum for. (my book for this class is a 1998 edition with no funds for updated material)

This article provides a very detailed introduction and definition of Connectivism as well as its components: Chaos Theory, Importance of Networks, Complexity and Self-Organization.

This wiki created by the Department of Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology at the University of Georgia describes the theory of connectivism in great detail and relates it to recent technological advances. Connectivism is defined and the related components of chaos theory, importance of networks and interplay of complexity and self-organization are described. The wiki includes a great cartoon slide show called "Connectivism through '67" that helps build understanding of this concept. It also includes a chart comparing various other learning theories to connectivism.

"Clarissa Davis, Earl Edmunds, Vivian Kelly-Bateman Department of Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology, University of Georgia" The article set the stage for the need for new learning theory now that 21st century technologies are in full force. The authors briefly discuss the "half-life of knowledge," again, setting up the need for new theory. After defining connectivism, the article provides a handy comparison between it and behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism.

"Clarissa Davis, Earl Edmunds, Vivian Kelly-Bateman Department of Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology, University of Georgia" The article set the stage for the need for new learning theory now that 21st century technologies are in full force. The authors briefly discuss the "half-life of knowledge," again, setting up the need for new theory. After defining connectivism, the article provides a handy comparison between it and behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism.

This article provides a general overview of the theory of connectivism. It cites the work of George Siemens in describing the three components of connectivism: chaos theory, importance of networks, and the interplay of complexity and self-organization. As with other resources, there is criticism of the ability of connectivism to stand alone as a learning theory. However, a useful resource provided by this article is a table that compares the differences of behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, and connectivism.

This blog is by the University of Georgia, College of Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology on Emerging Perspectives on Learning, Teaching, and Technology. This blog post gives a great foundation of the components and principles of connectivism.

A website from the University of Georgia Dept of Ed Psych and Instructional Technology. Discusses the components of Connectivism, Chaos, Importance of Networks and Complexity and Self Organization. The quote from Siemens about,  "decision making being based on rapidly altering foundations," is well used and helped me to visualize a little more. There is a well worked description with Connectivism related to car restoration which I liked and an accessible table to compare and contrast Connectivism to the other major learning theories.

This source starts by discussing some of the components of constructivism and some of the different theories that go along with it. This is a good source because even though it contains some of the same information as other sources, it gives real examples to explain the theory of connectivism. It also gives a few different arguments against connectivism as a learning theory.

This resource discusses connectivism as a learning theory. It explains connectivisms' origins and how it is essential in staying current in our digital age. This resource includes an example of the benefits of connectivism. In addition, it provides a chart that compares connectivism as a learning theory to behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism.

This source discusses connectivism as a learning theory. It talks about how the theory came to be and compares it to other learning theories. It also mentions that some view it as a pedagogical view instead of a learning theory.

This source summarizes the main ideas in connectivism succinctly and clearly. The authors connect the discussion of connectivism to other learning theories. The chart showing How each theory functions is useful.

While this isn't an article, and appears to look more like a wiki entry, it does offer some good information on connectivism. One thing I liked in particular is the visual breakdown of the three current learning theories alongside connectivism. Anyone unfamiliar with behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism can get a quick snapshot of the key components in an east to understand chart. A column for connectivism has also been added to show how it compares to the others as a learning theory. Constructivism emphasizes the social nature of learning, but connectivism takes it to the next level by stressing the need for broad networks for a learner to connect to in order to build deeper understandings and more resources.

This article discusses various learning theories and what happens when you throw technology into the mix. They do not feel that previous learning theories should be dismissed but need to be viewed in a different light to meet the demands of the 21st Century. There is a thorough definition of connectivism and all of it's components. I appreciated the visual chart comparing the different learning theories to connectivism and how critics of connectivism viewpoints are explained.

An outline of the theory of connectivism that provides a comparison to other learning theories. The outline gives us a definition of the theory, major principles, and criticisms of the theory.

UGA's DEPT of Edu psychology and Instructional tech provides a comprehensive report on connectivism. The report includes definitions, comparisons to other theories and criticism to connectivism.

This is a wiki created by the Department of Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology at theUniversity of Georgia. It explains everything from the origins of connectivism to practical application of the theory. A chart on the page compares connectivism to the other major theories of learning.

I like this description of connectivism.

A website created by students in the EdPsych department at University of Georgia that explains the components of connectivism as an educational theory.

I really like the way this article breaks down connectivism into its parts as well as providing the table that breaks down the primary learning theories so you can compare information side by side.

I guess I shared this link in a previous course, but it is a good one! Tony Bates discusses designing, learning from and defines communities of practice in the digital age. EDTECH543, Communities of Practice.

I appreciate the substance of this article as it goes beyond simply defining communities of practices and discusses the theoretical framework for developing effective CoPs. The seven tips offered for designers of CoPs provides structure and guidance for those interested in implementing this practice. I also found great value in the text's analysis of communities of practice in a technology rich generation. The digital age is dominating culture and as people seek to re-evaluate programs, organization, and life they tend to think they need to dump the old and start from scratch. This article, however, points out that communities of practice will be a powerful tool in the digital age by "it is probably a mistake to think of them as a replacement for traditional forms of education." Great perspective!(

A Community of Practice is essentially a group of people who share a common interest and learn how to polish and perfect that passion by regularly interacting with one another. Communities of Practice apply various theories of learning as the group members interact and glean from one another. Researchers argue that a Community of Practice differs from other types of learning communities in that the group members share a common interest, they engage in activities around that common interest, and all group member are practitioners of that interest. As a result, the learning that occurs in a Community of Practice comes from the sum of all group members.

This article focused on what traits a successful community of practice has and how they are taking shape in the digital world. Of particular interest in this article is the role that MOOCs are beginning to play in digital learning and also how the design of a community of practice can impact how long it stays useful and relevant to its users.

In this article, author Tony Bates refers to MOOCs as communities of practice, and then makes a distinction between "instructionist" MOOCs and "connectivist" MOOCs, the latter being designed to function as communities of practice. This has prompted me to look for more information on the distinction, as I am only familiar with instructionist MOOCs. In addition, I find the article of interest because of the subsequent and continuing scholarly conversation that ensued in the comments.

Very interesting article. I like how Bates explains the theory behind communities of practice and then provides the definition. It helps provide context for CoPs. I also found the "Designing effective communities of practice" section to be very helpful. It outlines what a good CoP should look like and encourages the diversity that can be within a community. Thanks for sharing!

This article from Tony Bates provides another great overview of CoPs. One of my favorite parts of this article is the section on designing effective communities of practice. Bates provides a list of key design principles (adapted from Wenger) for creating an effective CoP.

I love how this article recognizes that 1 plus 1 is not 2. That the sum total of knowledge exceeds what was put in.

This blog post discusses what communities of practice are, the learning theories behind CoPs, designing effective CoPs, and learning through CoPs in the digital age. It goes into depth about the seven key design principles for creating effective and self-sustaining CoPs. It also discusses the importance of Massive Open Online Courses.

In this post, Tony Bates discusses communities of practice including what they are and their characteristics. He also discusses ways to create and sustain effective communities of practice. Finally, Mr. Bates discusses how we can learn through communities of practice specifically through the use of MOOCs.

This article by Tony Bates gives examples of CoPs in companies like Xerox and how they work together within the company to create projects. It also provides a visual from Wenger assists companies with integrating a CoP within the workspace.

This post disusses what a community of practice is and the theories behind them. It also addresses the design of a community of practice and the three criteria involved, domain, community, and practice. Finally it discusses MOOC's.

This article gives some background and insight to the different parts of a Community of Practice. What I found to be most relevant about this article is the fact that it is based around digital learning. There is an image included in the article that displays the different websites that can be used as a tool for a CoP. This image is helpful in visualizing all of the ways to meet and communicate with peers in the digital realm.

This article looks at corporations that are encouraging CoPs like Google & Apple. Xerox was able to save $100 million by collecting tips that repair men were sharing over breakfast and sharing them on a larger level. CoPs can enhance organizational effectiveness and profitability by increasing knowledge sharing.

He is writing a textbook, Teaching in a Digital Age, and this is his discussion about communities of practice. It explains what communities of practice are, how they work, and how they can be successfully used. He argues that they are not a replacement for other forms of education but does mention that they can be great tools.

This article is a chapter for a book, Teaching in a Digital Age. It gives a good summary of the principles behind communities of practice. While the author does not fpbelieve that CoPs should replace other forms of learning, he sees value in them.

The author, Tony Bates, reviews what makes a community of practice by clarifying the main components of an effective one. My favorite part of the resource is the graphic organizing the tools and activities associated with a community, which also integrates the technology available. The article focuses on the idea that communities of practice is a method of informal learning and discusses how to use online learning to its highest potential.

To me the most interesting part of this resource is the comments. Very interesting arguments being made by various players especially Downes and Harasim. I often learn more from comments sections than from the main paper.