Group items tagged

This is a good article, if you are interested in deep diving into the theory of situating learning in the context of communities of practice. I have never thought of Alcoholics Anonymous as a community of practice before. The article looks at the structuring relation between the scope of participation in communities and the production of that scope in relations of commodification and the characteristics of divided forms of labor. The article also lists a set of conceptual independencies among person, activity, knowledge, and a world that recommend a conception of learning as legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice.

This book chapter is very informative, and takes a look at some of the situations regarding identity in a community of practice. There are many different roles one can take in a CoP. I enjoyed this chapter, because it took a look at Yucatec Mayan midwives. Which, as it sounds is an important role played in this community. There is a sort of apprentice mindset when learning something, and I find the same structure in teaching.

Many educators talk about the benefits of being part of a PLN. They emphasize that while they are interacting with people and not feeling alone while gathering ideas and sharing feelings, they can connect or disconnect anytime they want. It is the choice of the educator to determine the level of involvement they want to provide. The educators in this video seem extremely comfortable being members of these networks. Connecting and collaborating are important skills. Being able to choose when to connect and be part of a professional network, allows freedom for educators to continue their learning forever.

Another great youtube video that describes connectivism in layman terms. I like this video because it explains easily how connectivism works by connecting people together through social sites to help people learn. The video also gives a brief description of Behaviorism, Cognitivism, and Constructivism. A great find!

Joanna, I loved this YouTube video! It simplified Connectivism and Bob was fun! I loved when he made the connection. Thank you for sharing.

I agree with Matt above. This is a short and informative introduction to connectivism that touches on the major concepts of learning theory as well as implications in our time.

A cute powtoon video discussing the benefits of Connectivism as a learning theory. In the video she explains that an a advantage of connectivism is that the learner can connect with people around the world and understand different perspectives. Connectivism also encourages critical thinking and indepth examination of a topic.The important thing is not to know everything about a topic, but to know where to go to find the information.

This is an excellent resource! The video gives us a very nice summary and delves into the implications of a connected world and where we're living today. I am likely to use this video later on.

I appreciate the visual components of this resource and third person example of "Amy's" usage of connectivsim. Using Amy as an example this video allowed us to see the overall picture of connectivism theory as well as how it would look when being used by a student, switching our perspective of the theory from that of the teacher to that of the student.

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.

Suggests that understanding how members of a learning community converse is an important component of understanding connectivism. The tone of the interactions in a forum rely on the design and management of the space. Furthermore, learning depends on sharing in conversations and interactions which themselves can be meaningful activities. During communication among learners, there is a balance of what is good for each individual and the ability to move towards a common purpose.

In this article, Andrew Ravenscroft explores a "dialogue rich view of connectivism" and how we can develop learners that can "think, reason and analyse." He takes inspiration from social constructivist theory to focus on dialogue as a vehicle for learning. Ravenscroft begins by detailing Siemens 8 principles of connectivism. He then asks 3 questions: how can we understand the dialogue processes of a networked world, what dialogue features make for quality connections and how do we design to promote quality connections. He starts to explore the questions with Socrates and the Socratic method. This method has applications for 21st century learning. He reviews Hegel's dialectic as well. Ravenscroft maps these positions to connectivism because dialectic helps refine knowledge from a diversity of opinions, supports the capacity to know more, consideration of alternative viewpoints, fosters a constant evolution of knowledge, and promotes critical and collaborative dialogue. Then he discusses dialogic processes and how they map to connectivism. Dialectic and dialogic can work, not in opposition, but together in different aspects. Dialectic focuses on the epistemic and cognitive dimensions of learning, while dialogic focuses more on emotional and interpersonal aspects. The author then details dialogue game interactions and how they can foster learning. To be successful they need to balance orchestration and openness. This article proposes that language and dialogue remain a "most powerful semiotic system."

What a fascinating article. Ravenscroft's discussion of a scaffolded system to build a learner's dialogic skills reminds me of research I did for my EdTech504 class on self-regulated learning. Roger Azevedo is developing and experimenting with a similar game, MetaTutor, which scaffolds student learning as well. I think self-regulation is complex and difficult to teach in the classroom, and am amazed that researchers are creating software to build self-efficacy!

By Etienne Wenger, this site offers her defintion and categorization of communities of practice.

This article provides a simple definition of the term - "Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and who interact regularly to learn how to do it better." Businesses, organizational design, government, educational, professional associations, civic life and development projects use the concept of community of practice to focus on people and the social structures that enable people to learn from each other.

This article focuses on defining communities of practice and includes several examples. I like that they break up the words and meaning to simplify and better understand the meaning and benefits of communities of practice. For example, we might live in a community neighborhood, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we live in a "community of practice."

This case study examines which factors play into a successful MOOC (Massive Open Online Course). Some of these factors include peer interaction, professor engagement, and accessible course resources. The researchers concluded that these factors are as important in MOOCs as they are in traditional classroom settings. The article implies that classes based on the philosophy of connectivism are effective, but a number of factors must be taken into account when planning instruction.

It is difficult to maintain continuous student engagement in a traditional class setting. It is doubly so when the setting is online. This study researched what characteristics promote student engagement in online classes. Course takers identified 5 characteristics of MOOCs that encouraged their continued participation in the course. For the most part, courses that focus on problems and clear solutions, contain high levels of peer interaction and teacher participation, and include many active learning activities with accompanying course resources are well-liked by MOOC participants. The authors are certainly right to suggest that future research examine courses that are not as highly participatory as the MOOCs that are focused on in this study. I wondered as I read the article if the same level of engagement can be seen in other courses.

As this study emphasized, online courses have a unique challenge when compared to traditional brick-and-mortar courses because learners are physically separated from an instructor by a computer screen. Instructors do not just have to overcome motivation barriers, but also administrative obstacles. The article's "Table 2: Summary of Strategies Used" presented some well-designed methods to increase instructor accessibility---from the "Code Clinic" to weekly live interactive discussions.

This page by TeachThought Staff connects to a video by Marc-André Lalande that gives a simple definition and explanation of a personal learning network.

Summary: Defines what a PLN is, also has a great video resource. Focuses on how personal a PLN can be and how we are all connected.

Perfect resource for understanding what a PLN really is. I love the simplicity of this article and the way it guides the reader through with a video. It really is a great place to start to being to make sense of PLN. One thing that was shared at the end was that views will continue to change as technology evolves. Love that thought.

In this article Nicole Cooke, a Reference and Instruction Librarian encourages fellow librarians to keep abreast of the latest technology and the most current ways of seeking information so that they are prepared to help satisfy the needs of today's library patrons. She suggests that librarians prepare themselves for the evolving library patron by participating in professional development activities. In particular, Cooke advocates that librarians seek out the current educational opportunities that are available through various Web 2.0 applications. Cooke then moves on to describe how librarians can incorporate new learning opportunities into their day to day functions through the use of social media platforms such as blogs and wikis. Cooke ends the article by talking about personal learning networks and how librarians should take advantage of social media platforms to form connections with others in the field for professional growth.

I think this is a great article. I agree that anyone who is in education has to stay "savvy." I especially liked the comment "Maintaining competence and learning new skills must be at the top of every professional's "To Do" list. It is an ethical responsibility, to be sure, but also one that is pragmatic and critical for career success. [...] Continuing professional education is no longer an option, it is a requirement of professional practice. "

I am glad to see you posted a link to a PLN for librarians. I think understanding PLNs purpose and framework comes easier when it is viewed from a particular perspective (i.e. Librarians). I do think PLNs are particularly useful in the digital age with some much information and professional development resources readily available.

This source is a chapter in a book by several librarians from the IUPUI library system. The librarians set out to find ways in which they could collaborate with faculty to promote a more successful information literacy program on campus. The importance of this issue gave them the impetus to form a community of practice. This group consisted of both faculty and librarians who were all dedicated to discovering best practices for teaching and assessing information literacy concepts. The authors concluded the chapter with a discussion of some of the campus initiatives that came out of the CoP activities and what they may do in the future to further the growth and retention of student information literacy skills.

Thanks for sharing this article, Kelly. I appreciated the discussion of campus initiatives, including the student pre- and post-surveys, which yielded "abysmal" results. Even with those results, though, the initiative was successful in sparking the campus to start operating as a CoP.

Summary: Communities of Practice are all around us. They exist in most businesses and most professional communities. These communities are important because work is shared, revised, and organized; thus, making it better. The development of CoPs is dependent on leaders within these communities.

The sharing piece seems to be the most integral part CoP in my opinion. Also, before exploring these topics I feel my thinking was streamlined towards education, but I am understanding the need for CoP in all professions. If you are not sharing as a part of the community then you are not a contributor. This translates to the classroom and making sure all students play a role and have a place in the classroom's community! This starts as early as having a classroom "job."

KM stands for knowledge management. This article talks about CoPs in terms of the need to do away with canonical practice because the rules and procedures inhibit problem solving abilities. There is something I cannot identify that annoys me with this article. I do like the " Empowerment is key to learning" statement.

This article looks at Communities of practice and the implications to knowledge management. Communities of practice is a term originally developed by Lave and Wenger (1991). It describes a learning theory with a strong relationship to the social construction of knowledge. http://www.knowledge-management-tools.net/communities-of-practice.html

"Communities of practice is a term originally developed by Lave and Wenger (1991)." A community of practice is a group with common goals and interests. It is important to note that they are not a team. The goal is not to acquire specific information but to be part of a group to share information. It is unstructured dialog which leads to problem-solving and innovation.