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Learn about creating classroom rules for diverse groups. This two-week online course helps participants learn how Thinkfinity's social network can benefit educators. (one graduate credit) Iron Worker's Hard Hat, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. Experience the events of September 11, 2001.

New Technologies Can Keep You Connected and Help You Manage Information Overload by David Warlick

A free service for your home that lets you control the websites that are accessible on all Internet-connected devices on your network. Education and Enterprise versions also commercially available.

This has some quick ideas and directions for creating a voice thread.

This RTNDF (Kent State University High School Broadcast Journalism) Listserv has been one of the absolute best resources I've had in my teaching career. The ability to ask questions to other teachers across the United States who are in my discipline, tackling similar problems/challenges has created, for me, my own Professional Learning Network. I LOVE this group and recommend you find a listserv if one is available in your discipline as well.

Here is the book that fully explores how children learn in social, informal settings. It is the result of a three year study and is available as a free download here. (see my earlier bookmarked interview with Mimi Ito.) It explores many examples of informal personal learning networks in which children participate.

Just about my favorite scholar. She leads the Futures Initiative at the Graduate Center at CUNY and writes extensively about participatory learning, the history of technology and innovations in education, including personal learning networks. This website highlights her books, research and blog.

This links to a composition by Etienne Wenger, who co-coined the term Community of Practice. Wenger gives an overview with a specific statement that a CoP can be viewed as a social learning system, but is also part of a much broader social learning system, as a result of the network in which it takes place. Wenger goes on to identify the identities that happen as a result of being part of a CoP.

Another article by Etienne Wenger, this appears to be a synopsis and an update to his previously published book. While he does not go into great detail about the topics, he talks about communities of practice as social learning systems and in social learning systems. He also talks about the power of COPs, as well as the relevance to learning today.

This is another article by Etienne Wenger discussing communities of practice. I like it because it works in social learning systems. Social learning systems are similar to connectivism, CoP, and PLNs so I think it fits right in with our topic of study for this module.

This article was originally published in the Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education. It reviews three resources Edmodo, The Educator's PLN and Classroom 2.0. The article begins by describing what a PLN is and talks about the social media connections and the tools that are used to aggregate all the information. It also discusses some of the difficulties associated with PLN's including information overload, figuring out the social norms and learning to use the tools. The article goes on to describe and compare the three PLN platforms. The article even highlights the types of topics that are discussed on PLN's.

This article is from Ebscohost and does require users to log into Albertson's Library before accessing. This paper looks at shared social capital and what it means for teachers. It also looks at the difference and the benefits for teachers using online vs offline professional development resources as it relates to Facebook.

I was reminded that Google tries to rank sites for me based upon what it thinks I want. David Loertscher addressed siloing, which means your information group is too small and possibly too like-minded. Loertscher advocates that one should open your net just a bit. He suggests seeking diverse experts to follow on the Internet and identifies some of his favorites to gain a variety of voices.

This article examines PLEs with a working definition of "a combination of social media-enabled systems, applications, and services which help learners to take control of their learning by aggregating, manipulating, and creating digital contents and learning artifacts, and sharing them with others." It advocates for an atmosphere of learning that is far different than the traditional sense; one that is driven by student-led activities and exploration.

Summary: This link is to a research paper done on the implementation of a Twitter supported PLN to teacher professional development. This was a study around the ways that a Twitter PLN can support teacher's professional development. I found this paper interesting because it outlined a few realities of PLN's.

This resource is an image that shows the comparison between professional development for teachers in the past and currently through the use of profession learning networks.

I love this as I am a very visual learner. A great graphic - focus on the support, learn, engage and measure, and as a teacher who works in an international school the concept of PD is truly global. Excellent. Thanks Alexis -PLN buddy.

Solid graphic and one that actually focuses on teachers. A lot of the resources I found used businesses or government bodies as examples, but this is obviously more pertinent. Nice find.

This article is a guest post by a student who describes her PLN. It is an interesting self reflection about how this student realized she had a PLN without ever actively creating it. The article goes on to discuss how she developed her PLN and the major pieces that are in it.

I love that you included a student's perspective on PLN. I particularly liked her perspective on Internet Safety. My favorite quote is one we should all remember, "Common sense is a valuable thing".

Bryan, I really appreciate this article. Maybe because I can identify with Conner Wood's journey into blogging and PLNs. His revelation of a group of people he can trust thousands of miles apart connected by the Internet and his desire to meet them resonates with me. Many times I have wanted to meet my own cohorts. Wood's reflection on the quality of his selection of progressive educators is not lost on me either. His desire to opening your PLN to a variety of fields mirrors my own. "One can have a network of the top people in one's own field, but if one cannot talk to those people about anything else, what is the point?" Pinging your PLN for the "personal" as well as "learning" seems a recurring theme.

This article was found through Ebscohost in Albertson's library and requires you log into your MyBoiseState account to access. This article is a brief history of the rise of PLN's and talks about how they are created, why they have been successful and gives some examples of how schools are using them. it also discusses the benefits of PLN's. This article is an easy read and not particularly scholarly

This is another resource that requires you to log into Albertson's Library using your MyBoiseState credentials. This article's focus is on middle school teachers and looks at the MSP2 Math and Science Pathways project. The project was focused on providing connected online experiences for math and science through the use of technology. It discusses how they used Ning and Wikis for collaboration and also presents some of the findings from the MSP2 project.