Group items tagged

Presents communities of practice as knowledge management mechanisms, especially in geographically distributed situations. Mostly focused on application in business strategy.

A straightforward government-issued document on Communities of Practice that focuses on a variety of benefits for both organizations and individuals. Uses business at the working guide- not education- but the principles are the same. Very easy to comprehend document.

Thanks - I read this because it was not aimed at education which is where my interest tends to take me. I liked that there were examples with benefits but did find the description was probably a little narrow in stating that, ". .. who often collaborate via established Web sites. These community Web spaces are designed to allow community members to share ideas and knowledge in several ways" Enjoyed reading it though. Thanks.

Although this site is dedicated to knowledge management, this particular page focuses on what Communities of practice are, and it explains what learning is like within communities of practice. The bulleted lists are particularly helpful in summarizing the key concepts of CoPs.

I like this article because it addresses legitimate peripheral learning. The idea that we don't directly instruct new members, but instead allow them to do basic tasks within the community and then learn more important roles through daily observation. This idea and set-up reminds me heavily of an apprenticeship. New Members start at the bottom and learn until they are no longer on the outside but fully included within the community. Nice find with this article!

Great read on how we learn in COPs and the essential parts of COPs.

This article draws a link between personal learning networks and connectivism. The author states that "PWTs allow learners to expand their capacity for knowledge by connecting to external resources", which is one of the principles of connectivism. A variety of personal learning networks are also described.

This tool helps me find some other social learning tools and helps define what a PLN is. It's a concept that I've always worked with and used, but never had a definite term for.

I like the idea of how a PLN's component parts can include (what the authors call) personal web technologies (PWTs). The authors feel that PWTs are especially unique because they create "a continuous, dynamic learning environment for individuals as they move from one role to the next." It is this special property of PWTs that gives individuals the power to "manage their own learning resources." The authors also briefly draw an interesting connection between PWTs and connectivism, but it isn't explored in depth. They do offer an in depth discussion of PWTs shortcomings and potential disadvantages. I especially like their warning that "learners who use PWTs must learn to question sources, verify information, compare and contrast various perspectives and become more independent."

This article talks about how communities of practice are all around us and that more than likely, everyone is in multiple groups or communities. It also discusses how knowledge is what holds the communities together rather than tasks doing so like on a team. As it explains what a community of practice is, it also goes into how to develop the community as well as how to maintain it. To help a community of practice to succeed, it says no member needs to be on the outside of the community, but for all members to be fully inside the community and fully committed.

It is nice to see how communities of practice are used in areas outside of education. I feel this really highlights the importance of them beyond the theoretical value and into real-world application.

This article provides characteristics of communities of practice and examples of where they can be seen but what stood out to me as being useful information is how to keep CoP's productive and "nurtured." The focus of implementing CoP's is not in education but rather business; however, the information is still relevant and applicable.

Suggests that understanding how members of a learning community converse is an important component of understanding connectivism. The tone of the interactions in a forum rely on the design and management of the space. Furthermore, learning depends on sharing in conversations and interactions which themselves can be meaningful activities. During communication among learners, there is a balance of what is good for each individual and the ability to move towards a common purpose.

In this article, Andrew Ravenscroft explores a "dialogue rich view of connectivism" and how we can develop learners that can "think, reason and analyse." He takes inspiration from social constructivist theory to focus on dialogue as a vehicle for learning. Ravenscroft begins by detailing Siemens 8 principles of connectivism. He then asks 3 questions: how can we understand the dialogue processes of a networked world, what dialogue features make for quality connections and how do we design to promote quality connections. He starts to explore the questions with Socrates and the Socratic method. This method has applications for 21st century learning. He reviews Hegel's dialectic as well. Ravenscroft maps these positions to connectivism because dialectic helps refine knowledge from a diversity of opinions, supports the capacity to know more, consideration of alternative viewpoints, fosters a constant evolution of knowledge, and promotes critical and collaborative dialogue. Then he discusses dialogic processes and how they map to connectivism. Dialectic and dialogic can work, not in opposition, but together in different aspects. Dialectic focuses on the epistemic and cognitive dimensions of learning, while dialogic focuses more on emotional and interpersonal aspects. The author then details dialogue game interactions and how they can foster learning. To be successful they need to balance orchestration and openness. This article proposes that language and dialogue remain a "most powerful semiotic system."

What a fascinating article. Ravenscroft's discussion of a scaffolded system to build a learner's dialogic skills reminds me of research I did for my EdTech504 class on self-regulated learning. Roger Azevedo is developing and experimenting with a similar game, MetaTutor, which scaffolds student learning as well. I think self-regulation is complex and difficult to teach in the classroom, and am amazed that researchers are creating software to build self-efficacy!

While this presentation does contain some how-tos and examples of a course in connectivism, it gives an easy-to-manage view of connectivism as a theory and why social networking is so valuable. It also explores personal learning environments and has many good visuals that help explain it all.

A great slide show with images and short descriptions of how an individual uses online resources for his own personal learning as well as the definition of connectivism.

Fantastic find, there is a lot in this power-point to suggest a transformation via connectivism.

This is a fantastic resource to learn more about CoPs, particularly if you are considering forming one. It provides basic info and background about CoPs, but also provides a few examples, and also concludes with some links to external Websites where you can see additional examples of live CoPs.

In this article, the authors explore how PLEs, social media, and self regulated connect. Also introduces a pedagogical framework to for social media to support self-regulated learning

This article discusses how the use of formal and informal education can mesh. It talks about the importance of self-regulation in terms of connection to social media and how it can impact learning. It gives examples of how different media can be used in learning and enhance the PLN.

This paper is most useful for the discussion of how social media can help students develop self regulated learning skills in a PLE. A useful table is near the end of the article showing how teaches can use social media at 3 different levels of complexity for knowledge management.

This blog by Tom Spiglanin discusses what a Personal Learning Network is and how his was constructed. He discusses specific characteristics that he believes makes his PLN valuable and describes it as a hardware store, rather than a tool in his toolbox.

When I designed my creative expression on PLNs, I thought of keywords that were consistent in my research such as share, network, connections, etc. In this article, I found it interesting that the author described his experience as "on-fire learning." I found other keywords and phrases in this article that I can add to my list, such as global sounding board, camaraderie and support. When reflecting on this topic, it makes me realize what strength PLNs provide individuals and groups.

This discusses the importance of connected learning and all the ways one uses a PLN. It also talks about how the definition of a PLN has changed over time and how many of the original ideas are now obsolete but that the idea behind it all is still that it is about being connected and learning from others, and also helping others learn.

This article focused on the theory and gives good if not great detail on the reasonings for the theory of connectivism. It stresses the importance of the individual driving the learning, the digital ages importance, and the idea of interaction for learning.

In this article Wegner continues to expand upon CoP's by defining their role in organizations and highlighting the success of organizations in using CoP's in coordination with social learning systems. Through this process organizations are able to meet a greater variety of needs for their employees. Wegner highlights how this process is the antithesis of normal "management styles" which is usually a top-down format. However, by working and associating in a variety of learning systems throughout regions or areas, people are more knowledgeable within their field.

This article addresses the many challenges of setting up a Personal Learning Environment. The article also discusses the many benefits and various modes of collaboration and online discussion forums.

This article is about how learning management systems can be set up to encourage the development of Personal Learning Environments and connectivist learning. Currently many LMS are not developing students who are reaching their potential in creativity and autonomous learning. The large limiting factor in this include lack of student or even instructor knowledge of tools within an LMS. This is creating students who are dependent on the resources available within their LMS rather than capable of finding their own resources to guide their learning. When designing an online course it is crucial that students have the opportunity to discuss their learning and to share resources among each other.

Project K-Nect is designed to create a supplemental resource for secondary at-risk students to focus on increasing their math skills through a common and popular technology - mobile smartphones.

In North Carolina, about 100 ninth-grade students in four schools in North Carolina have been issued smartphones for use in their math classes. They use the phones to network among themselves on problems, receive instruction from teachers, play math-improving games, or watch an animation showing the problem being solved.

Through a grant from a smartphone maker, students were given devices that would allow them to contact other students and tutors about math problems when not at school. It also gave them access to materials for class that they otherwise would not have had away from school. While this wouldn't be applicable in all schools, the social networking aspect of the program helped students better manage their personal learning experience.