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A learning theory is a conceptual framework that attempts to explain what happens when people learn. Learning theories can help people interpret observations of learning, and direct people toward solutions to practical problems. In general, there are three types of learning theories: behaviorist, cognitive, and constructivist.

Did a search on Twitter and these examples came up from our professor. They are prior student examples. I thought I would include them, but they don't have to be counted as one of my ten. I love the music example.

You will need to use your BSU information to access this scholarly article. This article discusses how situated learning can evolve into Community of Practice. The author asserts, " The basic argument made by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger is that communities of practice are everywhere and that we are generally involved in a number of them - whether that is at work,school, home, or in our civic and leisure interests." Some CoPs are formally created while others are much more casual. This article is a great summary of Wenger's initial discussion of the topic.

This article is written in-response-to-a-response of an earlier article by the author (titled Researching religious education pedagogy through an action research community of practice - I've posted it as my #6 article). It seems that the response to the original article was critical of the a few items, most notably questioning whether the unnatural makeup of the group (too homogeneous or heterogeneous compared to the "general public") makes the practice invalid. Also, the article brings into question the nature of practice and theory, and how both impact one another.

Great problem-solving, simulation, game for business students. The object is to become the Carnival Manager: A local fun-filled carnival / theme-park urgently requires a virtual managing director to oversee ride and attraction construction, the hiring of staff, general park management, strategic planning, and financial budgeting.

I like this website because it is designed for teachers. It gives general ideas on how to incorporate the internet into the classroom but then goes into detail about how to use the internet properly. It teaches the teacher how to use the internet.

Child-friendly weather report including pictures and temperature. You provide the zip code, and it will generate a weather report.

CAST UDL Book Builder has been made possible in part by generous support from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education, NEC Foundation of America, The John W. Alden Trust, and The Pinkerton Foundation

This site is from Education World and is speaking about using technology in high school classrooms. This post notes that students in this generation almost demand that technology is to be used in the classroom because that is what they are used to and have grown up with. Cell phones, music devices and tablets have become more prevalent each year with more and more students bring them to school. They cannot seem to separate themselves from social media, music, games, etc. This site has listed some great ideas of how teachers can incorporate technology into their classroom, some of them are: online quizzes, online databases, Microsoft OneNote, online classes, student online portfolios and blogging.

this is a great puzzle generator. Where you can create your own word search puzzles or have students create theirs. You can also create vocabulary quizzes or extra credit work in seconds for your classroom.

Wordle is a toy for generating "word clouds" from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like.

The rise of smartphones has brought real-time location data into many aspects of Americans' lives. Some mobile services use the smartphone's location to offer directions, targeted recommendations, or other location-specific information to the user. Other services incorporate a location "layer" into other types of functions, while still others exist specifically to share the user's location with friends or the general public.

Easy bib is a resource use to create bibliographies and citations in many different styles. In addition, there is a plagiarism checker for both students and teachers.

Gamification is the idea of blending gaming elements with education. This resource gives a definition for this idea and lists four generic ideas that educators can use to start adding gaming elements to their classroom.

Siemens introduces connectivism as a theory for the digital age. He discusses the shift in learning theory that led to the creation of connectivism due to the need to make connections between specialized communities. He emphasizes the rapidly changing foundations of learning and information transfer and suggests that "creating, preserving, and utilizing information flow should be a key organizational activity." Ultimately, he suggests that connectivism is the way that education can meet the changing environment of learning.

This 2004 article by George Siemens discusses learning theories in general--what they are and their limitations. Siemens then goes on to discuss an "alternative theory"--that of connectivism. He specifically explores the fact that connectivism is part of the digital age because of the rapidly changing technology which enables more and more information flow. Siemens then goes on to briefly discuss the implications of connectivism.

This article investigates the beneifts and downfalls of behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism. Then, it dives in to the idea of connectivism, and how we use it to develop new knowledge and skills. The article states that, "This cycle of knowledge development (personal to network to organization) allows learners to remain current in their field through the connections they have formed."

This is an intro video for a 2.5 hour session lead by Madeline Brooks on Connectivism as a digital learning theory. She asks questions like "where do your students find experts" and introduces a lot of the major themes of connecting digitally online and learning in general.

I liked how this video summarizes what connectivism is. It gives an easy explanation of what connectivisim and I like that. As an introduction to a longer video series, it engaged me to want to see the video.When I was doing my research, I never thought to look at the videos that would explain it. #EdTechSN

I admire how this introductory video gets the audience to make personal connections to their own experiences with connectivism before addressing the definition. I also like how it gets the audience to think about connectivism from the perspective of students and how learning is not always traditional or academic; it can be about anything or take place anywhere with other interested parties.

Communities of Practice are becoming an important focus in organiation development because of the learning and collaboratiave aspects of CoP. Theory and practice of CoP's are reviewed. The model of situated learning is reflected upon as CoP's are viewed as a process of engagement.

This is an article that dives deeper into the theory and practice of communities of practice. The article hits the main components of domain, community, and practice but dives deeper into the thinking of the researchers Lave and Wenger. I appreciated how the article dives deeper into the process of these communities and how many of us join COPs as periphery learners and then as we gain competence through out interactions with the COP we move to full participation. The cornerstone of the theory being that learning not is solely acquisitional but rather a process of social participation. There are extended quotes from the researchers that provide a deeper context to their theory and more is discussed about the processes of their research.

This article provides a great overview of the writings of Wenger and Lave on communities of practice. Their basic points are that we are all involved in communities of practice and they are valuable tools to become better educators. They also explain how our learning never ends as education continues to change. We constantly need to adapt and change our methods to fit our learners.