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This document is a research paper Beth Transue completed for EdTech 504 on Connectivism Theory and Information Literacy. It demonstrates the alignment between Connectivism principles and ACRL Information Literacy standards, and recommends that librarians consider Connectivism learning theory when creating information literacy instruction sessions.

This text highlights the eight major principles of the connectivism theory and connects them to the Association of College and Research Libraries informational literacy standards. This source objectively evaluates the effects of connectivism when implemented for the purpose of teaching literacy standards. The big idea to be taken away is that as school librarians are embracing the digital media world, which is drastically altering student library experience, they are intuitively embracing connectivism, but would benefit from being more intentional about applying the theory. The theory applied to the library experience would involve the domains of information management, contacts, synchronous communication, and RSS. The goal would be that the conenctivism theory is applied so that students make personalized networks using the domains that maintain a dominance in secondary and post-secondary libraries.

EasyTech makes it so simple - even tech novices get on board. Need time saving ways to teach critical 21st century skills? Accoring to the site, "EasyTech makes that possible too. An award-winning, K-8 technology literacy curriculum, EasyTech helps students efficiently integrate technology skills with digital literacy, higher-order thinking and core curriculum."

This article explains activity theory model as a good tool for understanding the interpretations and conceptualizations of personal learning environments. I like the graphical representation of the elements of PLE. I like the set of questions researchers leave at the end of the article; some of them I already had in mind.

This site provides a paper written about the connections between personal learning environments and information literacy. It outlines how information literacy intersects with the goals of personal learning environments.

Position learners in active, participatory roles with authentic learning opportunities. The research paper assignment has failed to keep up with modern literacies. A PLE is informal learning and learner driven. The learner makes choices.

"Digital Literacy across the Curriculum handbook"

In this article Mark McBride, a librarian at Buffalo State College, discusses the recent changes that he made to his information literacy course. He talks about how he incorporated constructivist principles and problem-based learning activities into his course structure. In the process of making these changes, however, he discovered that he is really incorporating connectivism into his classroom. He makes the case that librarians should begin to adopt connectivist principles when teaching information literacy concepts. Additionally, he acknowledges that if librarians are going to move in the direction of the connectivist theory, the Association of College and Research Libraries must take a look at its information literacy standards and update them to acknowledge the ways in which learners can share and create information through the use of social media.

Some interesting food for thought for ELA educators.

A list of technology tools and resources that educators can use to help teach information literacy and digital literacy to their students.

Beth Transue, a librarian at Messiah College, begins this article with the suggestion that librarian educators reflect the tenets of the connectivist learning theory when designing their information literacy instruction. Transue mentions how the adoption of this theory in the development of library instruction can happen very easily as many of the connectivist principles are already evident in the steps of the research process. Transue spends the majority of the rest of the article talking about how the connectivist theory is connected to the model of the networked student proposed by W. Drexler in 2010. According to Drexler, a student uses information from four different domains: information management, contacts, synchronous communication, and RSS. The information management domain essentially covers the traditional library resources. The contact domain covers those who should be part of the student's personal learning network such as teachers, librarians, and classmates. The synchronous communication domain covers platforms like Twitter and the RSS domain covers blogs, wikis, and other social networks. The author spends the next couple of pages offering very specific directions for librarians to address individual domains in their information literacy instruction. Transue concludes the article by talking about what an information literacy session rooted in the connectivist theory might look like.

Hi Kelly, Interesting article. In one of the videos I found, the connection between research and connectivism was highlighted. I had not thought about that before, but it makes sense! And I've always enjoyed research, so good to know I've already been practicing connectivism on some level.

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.

A middle school language arts educator shares his favorite digital tools for text and video annotations, teacher feedback, and formative assessment.

A middle school language arts educator shares his favorite digital tools for text and video annotations, teacher feedback, and formative assessment.

This article describes four video resources that can be used in middle or high school related to economics, global issues, and media literacy.

This article describes four video resources that can be used in middle or high school related to economics, global issues, and media literacy.

This article defines connectivism and its connection to information literacy and pedagogical practice.It explores the relationship between connectivist principles and ACRL Information Literacy Standards. It argues that if librarians and educators do not learn pedagogical strategies, students who are active learners will be ill equipped to create and evaluate new information.

Summary: Although the paper identifies three challenges to Connectivist Learning (self-directed, presence and critical literacies) the findings, based on Kop's research, suggest that social networked learning does work. The paper includes students responses, both positive and negative, about their learning experiences. I found that aspect of the paper fascinating.

This paper highlights current theories of learning and gives a critical analysis of connectivism ""within the context of its predecessors" in a attempt to establish whether this theory is indeed anything new to offer for teaching and learning in the digital era.

This article looks at the challenges that could be faced by using PLEs and Connectivisim in social networking. The article breaks down the challenges to Connectivist learning and then explains the research methodology behind their findings.

Interactive literacy resources for kids of all ages. There are fabulous lesson plans on this site as well.

A collection of web 2.0 resources and tools aligned to ISTE NETS to engage and motivate student and teaching learning, specifically in the realm of literacy. Links are provided to sites such as those that promote/develop citizenship, critical thinking, creativity, communication, research fluency, etc.

In this blog post, Amanda Hovious, librarian and instructional designer, discusses librarians as facilitators of communities of practice. What strikes me about this post is that Hovious identifies various types of communities of practice, including (for example) students in an English Comp class. If a classroom of students can be considered a community of practice, then every educator serves in a role that facilitates these communities.

This post was great! As a teacher of secondary English, I'm always trying to find ways to engage my learners both in and out of the classroom in regards to reading. I need to tap more into our library and our librarian! Awesome ideas I will have to share with her!

I love getting the librarian perspective in this post. I think it was interesting to see how she facilitates the communities of practice. I also liked getting ideas of different groups that constitute a community of practice.

"21st Century Literacy project"