Group items tagged

How three theories have shaped distance learning over the years. Connectivist theory shows how learning is about forming connections with others through human and digital interaction. Developed in the digital age and assumes access to social networking technologies.

This is a March 2011 journal article that highlights the shifts in technology and theory for distance learning. First, there was the cognitive-behaviorist with it's focus on read, watch, and recall. As the web developed, we saw constructivism shift the teachers duties from content creator to a guide through the content as students synthesized. Connectivism promotes the teacher as a "co-traveler" helping students to explore, connect, and create.

Authors discuss the random, fluid, and brief nature of most social media interactions, noting that these give little opportunity for meaning construction but facilitate information gathering and individual sense-making. The restrictive nature of social media interactions presents opportunities to find new means of utilizing the technology in learning. Circulating knowledge does not generate meaning, but collaboration does, especially on tight time scales. The authors further present and discuss the term, generative learning communities, which appear to be similar to communities of practice.

Type in student names to generate a competitive bracket for your whole class.

User-generated media (UGM) incorporates traditional media (i.e., newspapers, radio, television) as well as non-traditional media like the Internet (i.e., blogs, wikis, picture- and video-sharing sites, and social networking platforms). This article examines three usages of UGM from the uses and gratifications (U&G) perspective, which are separate but interdependent concepts. The first use, consuming, satisfies the information, entertainment, and mood management needs. Participation, the second use, fosters interaction with content and people to enhance social connections in virtual communities. The final use, producing, encompasses content that is created for both self-expression and self-actualization. This article analyzes the appeal of UGM via the lens of U&G. U&G is used to explain the psychological needs of the individual consumer and why an audience consciously chooses a specific medium to fill recognized needs. These needs can be divided into five categories to help us understand media consumption on user-generated sites: 1) cognitive needs, 2) affective needs, 3) personal integrative needs, 4) social integrative needs, and 5) tension release needs.

Fantastic general real estate investment information centering around asset protection and short sale.  Allows agents and investors to collaborate and discuss changes in the market and transactional processes.

This article discusses adding CoPs to different organizations. It mentions the Internet Generation and describes various tools that will benefit a CoP. Finally, it describes that a CoP should have a purpose that has goals aligned with a specific purpose or vision in order to be effective.

I really appreciated this article and in particular the sense of purpose as a topic. So often I feel that CoPs can feel very purposeful and vibrant when they are created but lose their vigor or meaning as the primary task has been resolved. It seems that strategically placing emphasis on keeping the systems open and renewing purpose in order to develop leaders and new members creates a different energy for everyone involved.

Students will enjoy inputting their own text and seeing the message appear in images of fortune cookies, movie marquees, etc.

Resources for all sciences

Includes links to valuable classroom websites for General Science, Physics & Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology, Environmental & Earth Sciences, Space Science - Astronomy & Astrophysics, Medicine & Nanoscience, and iPad Apps.

Communities of practice, according to this article, resemble apprenticeships in other parts of the world and in earlier times. It used to be that in order to learn you became an apprentice to a master in that topic. You formed a community of practice to learn that skill. Learning, in general, can take this form and mimic this apprentice relationship.

While the CoP references in this group have clearly illustrated the concept as defined by Wenger, I found this reference equally valuable as it illustrates the practice of these communities in life situations. This helped me solidify my understanding in a different context.

drag and drop words onto a picture in order to generate writing ideas

Excellent example of using Edmodo, VoiceThread and Google tools in the general music classroom.

Student bloggers contribute to this general school blog and share their reflections, thoughts, projects, and work in this format. The mission statement of the blog mentions that it aims to get these students to be thoughtful and responsible social networkers. What better way than to have them actually do it!

Authors discuss advantages of personal learning environments in facilitating collaboration and fostering learner control. PLEs are facilitated by technology, networking, and self-regulation by learners. Open network learning environments from instructors allow PLEs to form. Focus of PLE is not information consumption, but information creation and participation. Authors relate PLE and ONLE to the theory of connectivism and discuss various applications and limitations.

Fantastic quote: "Educators perceive the instructional value of integrating Web 2.0 tools include autonomy, diversity, openness, and connectedness (van Harmelen, 2006); yet, they find multiple technologies daunting, which may affect their attitudes toward online learning. The integration of multiple Web 2.0 tools has created frustration among educators and students because they lack knowledge of the tools (Lee, Miller, & Newnham, 2008), difficulty learn- ing different tools (Weller, 2007), conducting multiple authentications (Suess & Morooney, 2009), visiting multiple sites for different tools, etc. This phenomenon results from a lack of understanding of the social networking learning paradigm and inappropriate integration." This article describes the role of Personalized Learning Environments (PLEs) and how Open Network Learning Environments (ONLEs) are instrumental for creating a PLE. The authors indicate that connectivism is a key underlying principle for developing such a PLE--seeking connections to learners and sources of information. They cite Siemens ("the pipe is more important than the content in the pipe"), which surprised me, as I read that comment from Siemens as hyperbolic. Practical advice for creating your own PLE are also incorporated, as well as examples of how to work and learn within a PLE. The authors suggest that PLEs (operating through ONLEs) disrupt LMSs in the same way that technology disrupts learning in general. Interesting analogy.

This article proposes the infrastructure of a next generation "context-aware" PLE environment that would automatically filter content using a Bayesian prediction engine. The guts of this are over my head, but it does address one of the key issues with PLEs and Connectivist pedagogies which is information overload and significant time wasted exploring the "wrong" links and resources.

The authors look at connectivism through the lens of a literature review and a qualitative interview session with educators. With these sources the paper examines the pros and cons of connectivism including its limitations as a postulated theory. The conclusions drawn are that behaviourism, cognitivism and constructivism fall short to fully explain modern learning realities, but that it is unclear if connectivism can be seen as the next stage of learning theory evolution for several reasons.

You are right about this being a "very detailed" definition of connectivism. I appreciate is the "conclusions and suggestions" section which challenges the labeling of connectivism as a learning theory as opposed to a pedagogical approach. I completed a research paper in EDTECH501 in regards to the relationship of connectivism and mastery learning, and never once did I read about this debate. To me, the fact that connectivism is more concerned with the process of learning rather than the end product proves that it is in fact a learning theory.

I really agree this article does a nice job contradicting the value or criteria of connectivism as a learning theory versus a pedagogical approach. Many of you discussed this above so I will leave it alone. The piece I wanted to comment on came at the end of the article when the author brought up the idea that older teachers take longer to learn the digital aspects and are less likely to engage in adapting the practice. Where younger teachers who grew up in this era are more apt to use and utilize web 2.0 tools in their teaching and engage in this model of teaching and learning themselves. I have to be honest that I saw some of these same things in our school when we went to a 1:1 iPad. Many of the younger and newer teachers jumped in and had very little learning curve in understanding what was happening. Where older teachers struggled or resisted the change. I would be interested in what others experiences were as well?

I like this infographic for several reasons: 1) it's an infographic, and 2) it's Creative Commons Attribution licensed, which means anyone can use it, change, it, share it, or make it even better, as long as attribution is given! One of the key points made here is that connectivism allows for cross-generational learning, challenging the notion that learning can only be acquired through transmission from our elders.

At first I thought this visual was very overwhelming and chaotic, but as I looked at the individual parts that make up the whole I gleaned a lot of new information about the way personal learning networks work. The visual also made it very distinct that not only cross-generational learning occurs, but also cross-cultural learning. I feel this is important because learning across cultures can be highly beneficial in showing various points of view. Great source!

Defines CoP's and reinforces that CoP's focus on sharing knowledge and developing best practices. Identifies CoP's as a model for connecting people for learning, knowledge sharing, collaboration and organizational development. Provides great key questions for growth of a CoP.

This is a great guide from Educause on the "nuts and bolts" of establishing a PLN. This resource provides a step-by-step guide to establishing a CoP.

This article is really helpful since it gives practical there are some things you can do. My favorite is "Design." You can not just set up spaces and expect people to interact. You have to drive purpose and there has to be meaning there.

Webmath is a math-help web site that generates answers to specific math questions and problems, as entered by a user, at any particular moment. The math answers are generated and displayed real-time, at the moment a web user types in their math problem and clicks "solve."