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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?

This article looks at connectivism as "the embodiment of social learning theory in the digital age." It breaks down questions posed by Seimens in terms of how technology and networks connect with learning theories as well as how these translate into the principles of his theory. The values of connectivism as presented by Downes are also highlighted. Specifically it offered a good rationale for why behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism have limitations in the digital age which give rise to the need for researching connectivism.

This article provides a succinct overview of connectivism. I particularly like how the author concludes with the point that all social learning starts with the individual and then branches out from there to networks and organizations before returning new knowledge to the individual.

Melodie, thank you for sharing this resource. I appreciate the article as it defines connectivism. Yet the authors are careful to point out that the theory is still developing and needs more research. It is healthy to learn that while the digital age is new so are those researching and exploring the informal learning groups that surround it theories. I appreciate the concise explanations and bulleted lists as well.

The study in the paper was interesting as it looked at K-12 educators and their use of Twitter to research, relate and form PLNs. Twitter and other social medias have allowed teachers to form networks that are specific to their needs and wants in terms of their own professional growth. In the "End of Isolation" the researchers findings touched on the fact that "over 82% of the time, the educators in this study chose to follow other educators or content experts related to their field of teaching so they were able to create a personal learning network meaningful to their professional needs." Now I just need to work with teachers at my school site to help them realize the individualized professional potential!

This study underscored the benefits of Twitter for the educational community. The article shared the advantages to new teachers in particular, where one participant stated it changed her vision and practice in the classroom. Very powerful!

Of all the resources I have read thus far on PLNs, this particular article forced me to think deeper and reconsider my interpretation of this concept. First of all, I found that the article provided a picture of the quality of interaction that can occur within Twitter. The data collected by researchers provides an in depth look at Twitter as a PLN - a feat that few other resources I have read have accomplished. By detailing the amount, quality, and type of interactions and connections, a tangible conception of a PLN emerges, even for someone who has little to no experience with Twitter. Of the 10 surveyed, a majority of their connections and tweets were professionally related. According to Nussbaum-Beach (video I posted), the difference between a PLN and a CoP is the familiarity of the people and the connection to an idea or problem. However, this study provides a different perception of a PLN that is largely professionally based with strong two-way connections. These conclusions made me wonder if it is possible for facets of a PLN on Twitter to transform into a CoP. Further, at what point can one argue that a PLN has successfully transform into a virtual CoP? Thanks for sharing. This was an excellent read!

This is an article that discusses the 21st century learner. It is an interesting article and was written recently.

This is a really good article on Tech Integration that I came across on the National Association of Elementary School Principals webpage. It explains technology integration and its benefits. It also lays out a plan for how administrators can begin to "develop a progressive technology-infused program." Though the article was written in 2012, I think it's just as relevant today as when it was first published.

This source focuses on connectivity and what it means for learners. It touches on the idea that we now need to teach students to make connections instead of assuming that they understand how to make them already. It also talks a little bit about how making connections help people learn in different ways and learn how to access new information.

The link given above doesn't work as it is. It has an extra quote at the end. You may want to remove it. Connectivism is presented in this articles as an alternative to traditional learning theories such as behaviorism and constructivism. I found it valuable to refresh my memory regarding different learning theories and their limitations. It was valuable to take a deep look at connectivism and the explanation related to how it could be the learning theory of present day digital age.

In this article, Wenger defines Communities of Practice (COP) as a "tribe learning to survive," (p. 1) although learning isn't always the goal of the group but can be an outcome. Members are committed to their community and create a shared practice of networking for a specific purpose. Originally associations and groups, the Internet is extending the reach of COPs and increasing the flow of information.

For those who have never heard of communities of practice, this resource explains it well. What are communities of practice, what do communities of practice look like, where does the concept come from and how it is being applied is all covered.

This is a brief but comprehensive introduction as to what communities of practice are by Etienne Wenger. One important aspect addressed is that learning is a product of a community of practice whether intentionally or not. It also gives multiple examples of what a common community of practice can look like such as problem solving, discussing developments, and visits. The concept came to be as a learning model by Wenger and Jean Lave. The concepts has many applications but a couple common places these communities are seen are organizations, government, education, and technology.

Focusing on the use of Twitter in a PLN, a study was conducted involving seven educators. The results were encouraging as Twitter provided an excellent medium for personalizing their PLN and having immediate access. Although much of the article goes on to explain how Twitter works in a roundabout way, it does explain the merits of open and public forums for collaboration and discussion.

This article covers a small scale research project done to see how important the use of Twitter was within a personal learning network. It was interesting to see how impactful Twitter could be within a PLN.

I love how this article validates the effectiveness of Twitter in the building of one's PLN. I have engaged in numerous Twitter chats with like-minded educators and found great benefit in building my PLN. Thanks for linking a great article!

Teachers are developing PLNs to connect with other educators and professionals all over the world to stay up to date on their teaching methods and resources. This article gives an overview of why many teachers belong to a PLN and why it is beneficial to their professional goals. I appreciated that the author named and discussed three popular PLNs that I plan on looking into further. They were Classroom 2.0, Edmodo, and The Educator's PLN. I agree with the author completely when he states that "teachers are lifelong learners." This article is a great read for those new to PLNs.

I loved all of the information on the various tools that can used in managing a PLN, There were several tools I wasn't familiar with and look forward to being able to use in the future.

I found this post to be extremely informative regarding how teachers can use PLNs for learning, moreover for modeling learning for their students. The social network portion of this article was authentic to the purpose of this course and aided in making connections regarding the usage of social networks for educational learning tasks. The review of the three PLNs was also helpful as we navigate this course and begin to implement strategies and plans for the incorporation of social networking into our own classrooms.

The author creates a great case in favor of digital PLNs. She explains why they are so important and relevant today. The emphasis of the article is on the need to work together, not on best practices, but rather on emerging practices. The author takes the stance that best practices require training with known knowledge for known outcomes. While we should be collaborating and innovating together to tackle the emerging practices.

In this article, the author explains why you should build a PLN, why PLNs are important, how to build a PLN, characteristics of a PLN, and skills needed to build a PLN. We need to stay relevant and connected with our personal development and can do that through PLNs. In the 21st Century, it is essential and key to success to stay informed, updated, and connected. PLNs make it easy to learn at the pace of change.

This article discusses why building personal learning networks is important when information changes constantly. The key to survival is learning how to learn continuously through building Personal Learning Networks. Creating networks where people can collaborate and learn from each other in order to remain on the cutting edge. PLNs allow for continuous learning, exchange of thoughts and ideas, and validate and challenge one's thoughts among a diverse group of individuals. PLNs have to be a sharing process of ideas.

In this article from The Journal Patricia Deubel, Ph.D give a really good break down of connectivity and how learn now for students is not about know what but knowing where to find it.

One of the things that I really appreciated about this article is that it highlights how much learning has become a non-linear activity. I actually think that way naturally, but many people don't. This helps me to have insight into how to explain my process a bit and to appreciate that quality in other learners.

Great article discussing the emergence of connectivism. It describes an ecological approach to learning and mentions various tools that are available through CoPs and PNLs. It focuses on educators being lifelong learners and utilizing the resources that are available through digital networks.

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.

This article really helped to define knowledge in the Connectivist theory. To know something, means that you are able to organize and connect ideas together. The author makes a brilliant point that the more connections you have to the idea, the stronger your knowledge of it is. It also states that it is more important to continue to search for more knowledge and connections than it is to be satisfied with what is currently known.

This article discusses different learning theories. One of the theories was network semantics and connective learning. This section describes what it means to be a network. Then it connects networks to what it means to be connective.

After reading this article I can get my head around how important PLN are and I applied it to my corporate job. Both my peers and the people who report to me connect in many ways.

This is the government's take on Communities of Practice, and I included it because like it or not, it impacts many of us on so many levels. The National Education Technology Plan asserts that we need PLC's, and if you have never read this document, it is worth the read. It definitely furthered my knowledge when I read it in EDTECH 501. The bottom line is that because so many students have access to mobile technology, they are able to be a part of social networks. The goal is to harness this power and cultivate collaboration and engaging learning experiences. Its premise is student-centered learning where students are able to make decisions and choices that form their own pathway to learning.

Thanks for including this document. I was impressed to see the progressive views outlined with many strong and important points for changing our education culture. One of the main areas included the need to leverage technology to empower students and shift learning responsibility from teacher to learners. In essence we want to strive to create master learners, where students understand how to evaluate and gain the information they need as life-long learners. The section "Measure what Matters" I especially applauded, as I feel our extreme emphasis on testing is misplaced if we don't make sure the tests and measures are appropriate for what students need to know to be life-long learners. Do standardized tests even have a section about locating information and assessing its validity? This report started out with a short list of recommendations that included, "Be clear in outcomes we seek". I think this is an important point as we strive to embrace and utilize the growing potential of connectivness.

This site dicates how facebook, twitter, and youtube were all used as social media for a school platform. While it does not make any strong conclusions it does indicate that it was positive, and how they made it so.

This article explores three different types of learning theories as applied to distance education or learning, a non-traiditonal means of learning where students are not physically present in the classroom for instruction. While the paper discusses the cognitive-behaviourist and social constructivist theories in this learning model, it also highlights the connectivism approach. It is made known in the text that the connectivism theory caters to the constant evolvement of the act of learning as it functions on the premise of building understanding by making meaningful connections between networks of information. It is to be appreciated that this text points out the strengths and weaknesses of the theory. When applied, this theory can be a struggle for students as the theory is extremely individualized and relies on the student to act as the "central connector" in their own learning, often leaving students weary from the energy exerted and sometimes confused by a lack of structured guidance and the responsibility to take control of their own learning.

SUMMARY: I especially appreciate this resource as it points you in several exciting directions to online CoPs to help you as a consumer of informatioin understand what constitutes a CoPs. I was pleased to see that I already belong to a few of these CoPs and I am excited to look into the others.

This was a great find. This site connects educators with communities that suit their needs. Educators can pick their interests and connect with folks on the spot. I really enjoyed viewing this resource!

First of all of course I love the name of this listing of CoP, "Online Communities of Practice in Practice". This listing is so interesting to me, I have for a long time collected from individuals blogs through feeds, but I haven't come across such a good listing of online communities. It was amazing to me as I begin to research these groups the number of educators in these networks. Of course each person is at their own level of involvement, but they are each harnessing the power of connecting in their own right, exactly how it works for them!

This article discusses the components of the current educational structure and how they can be detrimental to continued learning. It also proposes an alternative structure that promotes shared connections and networking.

Written in 2007, this article purposes an "alternative design" to online education that seeks to expose students to a variety of different technologies instead of having them master one. It would then ask students to share new found resources and ideas with other students. Although this "new" concept is clearly the type of education the MET program subscribes to, it is interesting to read about it in a hypothetical sense.

This article argues that personal learning networks will help advance the field of education technology. The author explains the differences between the dominant design of education technology and personal learning networks. The author states that personal learning networks will help people build relationships and connections.

I wanted to know more about the difference between a personal learning network and a personal learning environment. This article does a great job of breaking down the differences even though they obviously work hand in hand.

What I love about this source is the section that discusses why PLEs are significant - I love how it talks about how it is student-driven. It is up to the learner to be in charge of their own learning path and provides authentic learning opportunities. With the creation of 2.0 tools, educators are able to differentiate to different learners with the creations of these tools and pairing students that are in the same skill-set or have similar interests for them to learn information and assist in making connections.

I like this source and how it explains PLEs, why they are important, who they are for, and even the downsides to them. It makes it an easy read and easy to find the information you are looking for. I also like how it includes a case study to align with the information that is given.

This source addresses personal learning networks and connected learning environments. It describes connected learning as important because information is so widespread and accessible, and learning is now happening flexibly. The source also discusses connectivity and communities of practice.

This article discusses the idea of connected learning and its benefits. It discusses how the learner can be at the center of their learning. Although this article focuses of incorporating connected learning to teaching practices, it can also be applied to gain a better understanding of forming personal learning networks to enhance ones professional growth.

I love the term "connected learning." I can't imagine learning in isolation. I have to take what I am reading and share it out on Twitter, I want to get the interaction of others to enrich and enhance what I am learning. Learning systems is a good way to put it. You have a system in place that involves connecting with others.