Group items tagged

I like the scientific approach the slides take on the model and especially like slide 17 because it lists pros of connectivism that I truly believe.

Communities of practice are groups of people who share the same job or a common interest in a subject. They come together to form a link to help each other perform in the world around them. This article talks about the value of communities of practice and how and why they work.

Eckert, P. (2006). Communities of practice. ELL, 2, 683-685. In this article, Mrs. Eckert does a great job in simplifying what a community of practice entails and means. She allows you to visualize the communities you belong to as well as other communities of practice you interact with or observe on a daily basis. One important distinction is that the author of this work is written from the sense of sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology and not from an educator's mind set. Irrespective of this standpoint, you can see direct correlations to where students understand themselves and what communities of practice your own student population may fall under. In order to understand the social development of communities of practice Mrs. Eckert does a good job in breaking down common cores that can emerge from memberships. The linguistic side she writes, "A white working class Italian-American woman does not develop her ways of speaking directly from the larger categorical working class, Italian American, and female, but from her day to day experience as a person who combines those three memberships. Her experience will be articulated by her participation in activities and communities of practice that are particular to her place in the social order."(Eckert, 2006) Building upon that theory, she discusses the importance of social space "Emma Moore's study of teenage girls in Northern England (Moore 2003) traced the gradual split of a group of somewhat rebellious "populars" as some of them emerged as the tougher "townies" in their ninth year. In the process, the vernacular speech patterns of the "townies" intensified in opposition to those of their more Conservative friends". (Eckert, 2006) While the article sheds more light on the development of speech patterns and dialects through the medium of communities, we can also see the definition in practice in which a collection of people gather together over a common interest and then orients to their new surrounding

This is just a basic definition of communities of practice. It is a very easy way to understand it.

Communities of practice (CoP) are created through a community of people who have common interests. In communities of practice, Eckert (2006) explains "a community of practice develops ways of doing things, views, values, power relations, and ways of talking" (p.1). CoP's have a way of providing a personal identity and a way of speaking within a CoP.

Great video, especially for those of us visual learners.

I have to critique this video on two levels. First the video itself seemed more an exercise in using a non linear editor than in telling a story of communicating an idea. The message was lost in the many irrelevant images used by the authors of the video. Secondly it offed a minimal look at what connectivism is and the current thinking surrounding the use of connectivism as a learning theory. We need to hold electronic media to the same academic rigor used for scholarly peer review works. The authors of the video should have understood this as it was produced for a graduate level class. We as consumers of media need to be able to filter appropriate information for a given task at hand, and although alternatives to print media are desirable in education, the video was not able to address the theory level of connectivism effectively.

I like this resource because it comes directly "from the source," Etienne Wenger, who came up with the terminology and brought the concept more into the forefront in education. The clear definition and examples of what a CoP looks like are also beneficial in reviewing the theory behind the concept. I also appreciate the background information Dr. Wenger provides in this resource, as it helps the reader to understand how communities of practice originated.

I posted a link to another publication by Wenger, but found this resource to be more succinct in the discussion of CoPs. As a new student in education, this summary is especially helpful when attempting to understand the "theory behind the concept".

I really like this article because of the role of the teacher being discussed in great detail. I think that in Connectivism I was confused about the role of the teacher especially when it came to filtering information. I feel like now I have a better understanding of how the teacher acting as a filter in the initial stages of the lesson can lead to students being autonomous and filtering sources later on.

This is an awesome article about the utilization of PLNs. I love that the fact that it shows that teachers are still learning and evolving with the students and information. We as instructors must adapt to new information and not be passive in our learning, if we are passive the information will change and the students will have access to it, which we will lose credibility. This active teaching and learning model is key for the modern world of education.

I appreciate this blog post pointing out the need and helpfulness of PLN for educators. In the past teaching has been a very isolating experience where everything learned and gained from teaching experiences was kept within a teacher's own development and classroom. Also, the climate for sharing was not always encouraged within the school and between teachers. By actively taking part in a PLN, teachers have the advantage of sharing, learning, and growing with other educators and researchers. I wish the article would have gone into more depth with some examples, as I found I wanted to read more specifically about this impact in action.

I like the idea of PLNs rather than PLCs. The school divisions I have worked for have used PLCs for teachers to avoid that isolated feeling. They work great for teachers who are in a building with more than one teacher in their content area or grade level. They do not work well at all if the teacher has to work with someone that does not teach the same grade level or content. I can see how this would be great for teachers in a rural school, where access to other teachers is limited. Another benefit for teachers who use social networks (ie. blogs, wikispace, facebook) for their PLN is that they may be more inclined to be active participants. These social networks can be less threatening to a teacher who may be shy or hesitant to speak up face to face.

I enjoyed reading this article. It would be a great resource to help get schools involved in PLNs. There were many benefits for teachers that are in PLNs. I would enjoy having the benefits of resources from other professionals in my field. Collaboration is a great resource to help you become a better teacher.

I recently posted a power point presentation by Pam Murray that has a broken link so this article discussion will take its place. In the article creating a robust and meaningful-pesronal-learning-network author Gabrielle Even does a great job detailing what a PLN is through her own leraning of personal networks and how she has used blogging, twitter, goodreads and other platforms to develop PLNs. I like that she details what a PLN has in common with PLE's as well as how they differ. Finally I enjoyed her "how to" use a PLN by providing the example of a MOOC and how to best utilize that to transform your understanding of a personal learning network.

This blog is a very interesting read about PLN's. It is nicely laid out and makes learning about PLNs very easy. I also think it offers great tips on how to create a meaningful PLN.