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This paper, by Ana Maria Marhan examines connectivism and social media. The author points out that because today's learning is a "messy, nebulous, informal, chaotic process, we need to rethink how we design our instruction. This hit home because I just moved to a new state and a new district, and they are very strict with, well, just about everything on the computer! I teach at a Title 1 high school, and these kids would truly benefit from instruction that wasn't so linear. These learners (like all learners) form their own pathways of knowledge, and I believe I could make a stronger impact on them if I could use more tools.

Marhan, A. M. (2006). Connectivism: Concepts and Principles for emerging Learning Networks. In The 1 st Conference on Virtual Learning. In this article author, Ana-Maria Marhan does a good job exploring the principals pushing forward Connectivism as a pedagogical helper. This becomes apparent right from her abstract "Connectivism views learning as a network creation process, and looks at how we might provide 'learning ecologies' to meet the learners' needs.". In her first section, she defines learning as "a persisting change in human performance or performance potential which must come about as a result of the learner's experience and interaction with the world." As soon as I read the last few words "interaction with the world", I began to connect the dots (no pun intended) to what I've read thus far about communities of practice. She spreads out on a handful of relevant and interesting subtopics to the overall theme of Connectivism. After she describes more about the new connected and growing world we live in she tackles the basics of Connectivism as a theory of learning and the principals behind it. Again like other articles she echoes many of the same sentiments George Siemens made when he originally proposed the learning theory. After the background on Siemens theory, she begins to draw everything together. One statement that I enjoyed was "Individual is the starting point of Connectivism: personal knowledge is comprised of a network, which feeds into communities, organizations or institutions, which in turn feed back into the network and then continue to provide learning to individual". She does a great job of supporting the use of technology not as the new power of learning but as a tool to unlock that power. "When knowledge, however, is needed but not known, the ability to plug into sources to meet the requirements becomes a vital skill".

I also appreciate how Marhan suggests that connected learning is cyclical: "Individual is the starting point of Connectivism: personal knowledge is comprised of a network, which feeds into communities, organizations or institutions, which in turn feed back into the network, and then continue to provide learning to individual."

A teacher at West Lake High School in Austin is finding that student use of social media is improving their writing skills. Students are posting essays on blogs and sharing them out through Twitter.

In Dominique Chargois's Spanish III classes, students interact with native Spanish speakers on Livemocha, a social network for learners of foreign languages. Chargois has used Livemocha Active Spanish as a supplemental learning tool in all of her Spanish III sections in order to engage students and inspire them to learn ad so they could work at their own pace. It also helps expand students' horizons by 'chatting' with individuals who live outside the U.S.

A great leaping off (or summarizing) video on what a PLE is and its connection to connectivism. This apparently was a high school class production. My only qualm might be that their concept of a PLE is a bit web-centric, but this is really well done. I particularly like the end portion about the role of the instructor in a connectivist world. A definitely worthwhile five minute investment.

At my institution we were just involved in developing a student learning outcome to meet our assessment plan. We made sure that information and technology literacy went past the Internet and would include professional networks that were F2F and also be able to pick up a phone and call someone.

Go to the first option, it is the article written by Attwell. This article gives a summary of what a personal learning environment and it's benefits. This article gives good examples of what a PLE and how it works as well as some history and theoretical background.

Great read! Totally agree that while life long learning is nothing new, technology brings it to a different level (even though the focus of the article was on education rather than the technical aspect.) I also found interesting the discussion on new approach to assessment (the traditional one on the outcome vs. the new one on the competencies for such an outcome.) Some food for thought!

Great article! I liked how the article defined PLNs and gave ways to use them for deeper understanding and engagement. I used to teach an introductory tech course at our local high school and I will be speaking the the teacher and sharing this article with him. I feel that the benefits of students using PLNs is limitless.

Allows your iPhone or iPod touch to become a higher quality recording device. Easy to use app. Quick edits and email capable. I can think of lots of uses for a high school classroom.

The author clearly breaks down the benefits of educational software by different age groups beginning at birth through high school. He even gives negative information about using software too early, or using wrong content software for the age.

Great app for Theater teachers and students. Applicable for middle, high school and community theater performers.

Essential program for sound design and interfaces with many boards for performances. The tutorial is excellent and worth the price by itself. Great for 9-12 high school Theater classes, and Drama clubs.

Simulations are a great way to help students get a deeper understanding of concepts. Watch one teacher use a simulation to teach History to high school students.

This last year I got tasked with teaching Psychology for the first time. I was without any textbook or real resources to use, so I looked to the web and found a couple of great blogs that really helped me out. It showed to me the power of great teachers sharing amazing resources, lesson plans, and ideas with one another to generate the best learning outcomes for our students!

This slide show outlines and describes the shift from virtual learning environments to personal learning environments. It includes multiple infographics that contribute to understanding.

It was interesting to look through this slideshow Courtney. I work as an online high school teacher and most of my job is done through an LMS. Learning about these PLNs though has me looking for ways to make sure my students are making connections.

There are four main aspects to a successful PLN: 1. Tools - depend on learners ability level but commonly include social media 2. Connection - groups of people with similar interests and goals. There is no boundary for location of group. 3. Delivery - can be through any method the learner prefers 4. Opportunity - with the development of technology, this can happen anywhere the learner has access.

This wiki site was one of the most simplest definitions displaying the elements of a PLN: tools, connections, delivery, and opportunity. Tools allow the learner to use what is most familiar, connections provide the ability to build relationships with others, delivery includes how information is disseminated, and opportunity is when the learner has the time to practice.

This is a great site for someone new to PLNs. It provides a description of what makes up a PLN along with visuals. I also like the "growth" section of the wiki. In the first paragraph it discusses district PLCs. Many districts like to have vertical meetings, where all of the math teachers from elementary through the high school meet to see how their coursework aligns. These meetings are inconsistent because it is difficult to get all of the teachers out of class at the same time. Digital PLCs for vertical meetings would be a great way to allow for more constant collaboration.

Drill & Practice-style math online with IXL. This site offers thousands of online math practice skills covering pre-K to high school, with questions that adapt to a student's individual proficiency.

GeoGebra is a multi-platform mathematics software that gives everyone the chance to experience the extraordinary insights that math makes possible.

This is a fantastic Geometry tool for high school math students. This is a website where you can manipulate angles, segments, polygons, etc. to understand a theorem, equation or true statement used in math. This is a fantastic visual for geometry students to use when discovering any type of math concept.

Creative and engaging activities and resources for junior and senior high school mathematics aligned with the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics.

This project has students creating a blog account for a character in a Shakespeare play and updating it throughout the unit. Students each get assigned a character and have to create a blogging platform for their character. They use this site for all of their assignments during their unit. They need to have a blog post for every scene their character is in and comment on other scenes that their character isn't in. They also need to memorize one passage and record themselves saying it on their blog. I like this as an organizational tool for the assignments over a unit. It gives students a good way to interact with each other and practice their writing while they deepen their understanding of Shakespeare. This project is great because it can be applied to any reading that is being done in a class over a long period of time. A Shakespeare play is read every year in high school in my district and this is something I would want to use in my English class to support that.