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This article provides some insights and links to technology that can be used to teach PE classes. Some of the tools that the author links to are apps that turns exercise into games and help track fitness progress. This article is a good, short resource to use if you are interested in teaching PE with technology or just want to discover some useful fitness apps.

This article provides a succinct definition of a personal learning network and provides a list of advantages of establishing your own PLN. The article also discusses ways to create your own PLN and methods to continue to make it successful.

This article is better at the set up of an PLN and how to use it. It does give 3 of the benefits of having PLN.

One of the things that really stands out for me in this article is the idea that you need to be consistent to get real results from PLNs. One of the reasons that I decided to take this class was to force myself to post regularly on social media. It's helps get your message out there and keeps you on people's radars. Cool article! Thanks!

I have loved using these Khan Academy videos in my Geometry classes. They have really helped give my students more examples of how to do proofs.

Vicki Davis equates the student PLN to a virtual locker. The content in the virtual locker changes as students shift from one project to another. Whether it is an RSS feed or Twitter following, the students are developing networks to acquire the information. PLN allow student learning to become more self-directed. The article addresses the challenges for educators face as PLNs become more prevalent in the classroom.

Great article! It is encouraging to see that like educators, students can also utilize PLNs in a meaningful way. Definitely going to check out iGoogle!

Coming from a higher ed perspective I found this really interesting. I used an RSS feed for a 200 level undergrad blended format class and received terrible reviews on the use of the tool. I found this interesting and am still trying to understand what went wrong. I am moving toward the use of Twitter now but found loved this visual image of the locker!

Edutopia is one of my favorite resources. This is a great article on using Twitter for professional development.

Thanks for sharing this Mary! I had never heard of Edutopia before this, I will have to look into this more as it seems to be a popular social network platform among our group.

I love reading articles from Edutopia and this was no exception. It is amazing how much knowledge can be gained by the use of Twitter. I participated in a few PD type discussions and have found them very useful. The tips provided are very helpful. Thank you for sharing this article.

Edutopia writer Vicki Davis discusses how PLNs have empowered her students to guide their own learning experiences. She discusses the weaknesses of PLNs and how they work.

While this blog posting from Edutopia does point to some "how tos" and practical application, it does offer key theoretical practices for setting the stage for applying the PLN model for student use. Vicki Davis, the teacher and author of the blog post, states that her students are familiar with breaking news due the development of their own PLN that acts as a "virtual locker." She goes on to discuss how their research builds the content of their PLN and the content changes based upon the assignment. The big idea is that the PLN model allows students to act as the orchestrator of their own learning and allows them to analyze information via an avenue that is personalized to student's learning needs. It also teaches students to embrace connectivism where they make connections between domains in order to form a more complete understanding.

The article goes into the role of a PLN for students. Students can create their own networks to possess information at their fingertips on any topic they could ever desire. By establishing a networking system, the students don't necessarily have to go out and scour the internet for sources when their network could bring relevant information to them.

This blog describes the basics of what a PLN is. It also provides a look back through recent decades at how the concept of a PLN has changed with newer developments in technology.

This is a fun article about teachers and there PLN. It goes through and talks about them from the pre internet 80's, the email 90's and the social 2000.

I loved reading thoughts about Professional Learning Networks from a very personal perspective. One woman discusses her personal experience with her PLN and mentions that some of her very best friends are teachers within her network. Teachers that we learn from, share with, and socialize with are excellent individuals to have within our PLNs. She also takes readers through a journey through time, discussing how PLNs have transformed from the pre-Internet 1980s, with very few resources, to now, where we have multiple resources and tools at our fingertips.

I've been getting very interested in using Twitter in my class. This article has some really good ideas on how to integrate the micro-blogger into the classroom. Teachers can use it to keep everyone up to date with projects and relevant resources and students can use it as a research tool (something I didn't consider).

This is a good resource for teachers that are interested in making their online courses more accessible. One of the resources is Quality Matters, an online certification process for online classes that sets standards and provides feedback on courses. At my school, we're currently in the process of making sure all of our online courses pass Quality Matter's standards and it's really improving the course curriculum.

I love this site for exploring and sharing good books. It's a favorite form of social media that I think could be really useful for English classes. Alas, the app is rated for adults because it contains links to all kinds of books. Don't know how that's different from a library BUT it has been blacklisted for my students. "Discover and share books you love on Goodreads, the world's largest site for readers and book recommendations!"

I thought that this personal learning network resource was a great fit for our class. This article discusses how schools are using social media to engage students and real-world relevance, for professional development, and school, district, and teacher collaboration. They used Twitter to document and share a paper tower challenge with schools and teachers from all over the world. Twitter was used to connect with experts and students got to see that not all scientists agree on certain topics. They also connected with the community.

I like that this article looks at how Twitter can be used for students and for educators. The idea of Twitter for educators as professional development fits very well with the ideas of COP's and PLN's. While I haven't been a true part yet of a structured Twitter session for PD, I have lurked in many formal PD discussions with hashtags for our public school system and benefitted from what I gleaned.

What an awesome video. It makes me excited to go back in August and really challenge myself to use Twitter or Facebook to showcase my students. Our school district uses a hashtag #bsdpride for teachers to showcase things going on around the district and it's starting to take off. It's awesome that teachers are encouraging each other to use Twitter and begin challenges that involve students. You can tell from this video how important these students feel when their work or projects re used on social media, and are getting attention from other schools.

In this study from the University of Central Florida, the researcher focuses specifically on how classroom activities drive student learning towards the CoP model, most notably collaboration. The researcher uses a graduate public administration level class to conduct her study, which is important because all student participants share the same learning and degree outcome---essential to the effectiveness of CoPs. One finding this study presents is the concept of building 'friendship networks' in CoPs. The study shows that friendships were "greatly strengthened" throughout the course and there were no "weakly connected individuals" at the end of the semester (Napucu, 2012). Furthermore, in this study, emphasis is placed on the facilitator (in this case, the professor) of this CoP and how that facilitator structured the course to fulfill the learning needs of the students in the created CoP. *Note, you'll need to log in to Albertsons Library to read the article in full.

Skype is also great from bringing students who might be stuck at home due to illness or other situations into the classroom to join the class for a collaborative dialogue or other activity

This article provides links to many sources for free stock photos. Thanks for sharing this with our 541 class, Dr. Gernstein.

KDMC produces a wealth of digital media tutorials to support its training sessions and classes. While the focus of some tutorials is on technology and journalism, most are general enough to be of use to anyone.

These user-friendly tools will keep you and your class inspired, inventive, and organized.