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Abstract: Student Response Technology (SRT) involves the use of hand-held remotes by students during classroom lectures to electronically respond to questions. This study surveyed 350 students enrolled in one of 13 lower-division university science classes taught by five different instructors who used SRT. The survey probed students' perceptions of SRT in terms of enhancing student learning, and investigated which features of SRT students felt had the greatest/least impact on student learning. The majority of students reported that the SRT increased their content understanding, class participation, alertness, and interactions with fellow students, helped with examination preparation, provided important and immediate instructor feedback, and made class more enjoyable. Students in this study scored more positively than peer groups on survey questions related to student engagement in academic and intellectual experiences, suggesting that SRT helps to promote student engagement. Important instructor actions identified during this study that augment the enhancing effects of SRT on student learning, even in large lecture settings, include designing clear, substantive questions, reviewing correct and incorrect answers with students, and making pedagogical adjustments based on class responses.

Ever considered PLN's for students, found this on Twitter. I really like the fishing analogy at the end. Great idea for creating student centered learning.

I like the idea of students creating their own personal learning networks. That is very 21st Century learning focused. It could open up a lot of opportunities for students and even educators. Nice source!

This article focuses on the student PLN and how a global PLN would help students with there search for knowledge. This would also lead students to self directed learning. Students could use their PLN to push their own learning in the direction they want to take it.

Edutopia writer Vicki Davis discusses how PLNs have empowered her students to guide their own learning experiences. She discusses the weaknesses of PLNs and how they work.

While this blog posting from Edutopia does point to some "how tos" and practical application, it does offer key theoretical practices for setting the stage for applying the PLN model for student use. Vicki Davis, the teacher and author of the blog post, states that her students are familiar with breaking news due the development of their own PLN that acts as a "virtual locker." She goes on to discuss how their research builds the content of their PLN and the content changes based upon the assignment. The big idea is that the PLN model allows students to act as the orchestrator of their own learning and allows them to analyze information via an avenue that is personalized to student's learning needs. It also teaches students to embrace connectivism where they make connections between domains in order to form a more complete understanding.

The article goes into the role of a PLN for students. Students can create their own networks to possess information at their fingertips on any topic they could ever desire. By establishing a networking system, the students don't necessarily have to go out and scour the internet for sources when their network could bring relevant information to them.

As students construct personal learning environments, teacher instruction and support is likely to be needed. PLE's must be constructed based on needs, and students may or may not be able to articulate what their learning needs are.

Today, students already have personal learning environments, but as teachers we have the ability to forge new pathways to learning by utilizing what kids already know and modeling collaboration and exploration.

Wow! What a cool article. I really enjoyed the picture of the Networked student. This article is like a how to for a teacher wanting to teach the 21st century student. It makes me wonder if our school system should provide a class on how to set up a method for each student to display their learning or their personal learning environment.

In this article faculty and graduate students at the University of Plymouth wrote about the growing use of blogging in higher education classrooms. The authors see connectivism as the theory that helps to legitimize the use of blogging in the teaching and learning environment. They acknowledge that Web 2.0 tools such as blogs give students the ability to easily make connections with their peers and others outside the classroom walls. One of the most interesting aspects of the article was that the authors advocated for the use of course blogs rather than individual blogs for the simple fact that it promotes a single platform for students to share and connect. The authors gathered much of the information for this article from a case study that they did with university students. They asked several students to complete a survey. Instead of a survey, the staff involved in the project were interviewed. Through this case study, the authors were able to produce both qualitative and quantitative data on the use of blogs. Overall, the results showed that blogs are an acceptable medium for using the connectivist model and that by and large, most students achieved the learning goals while completing the assignment.

Kelly, This is a very interesting article especially since I have had to use blogs for many courses and have considered having my own students use them as well. I definitely understand having a single platform, but I wonder if that takes away from the individuality students gain from getting to create their own.

Tiffany, I too am torn on the use of a single platform in the classroom. I love that it would be easier to manage one account rather than individual student accounts. I have over 100 Spanish 3 students (which doesn't include my Sociology and Spanish 2 classes). It could be a nightmare to monitor appropriate blog use of all of those students. At the same time, I agree that students lose the ability to create a personal site, and could be less engaged on the single platform.

This speaker does an excellent job showcasing that our students are totally capable of being part of a learning network before they can even recognize what it is they're doing. Things have changed intensely since the rise of networked connections between people. School needs to adapt and use these tools that professional educators are using to improve meeting the many "standards" that Mr. Regur talks about. "We have standards just to write standards…" We need to avoid the closed off island that is being a teacher… There is no longer an excuse to be stuck in this single-player version of education.

We all create personal learning networks in everything we do. Using this in education is extremely important so that students a) know how to connect with others, and b) know how to benefit from connecting with others. I like how he called the "teacher the most important activator".

Two is a meeting, Three is a network. Steve had some great "real" advice and reasons for why we should all join PLN for a variety of different reasons to create a stronger and more educated world.

This online news service brings together journalism students from around the world in a collaborative effort to report on global issues. Written "for students, by students" it encourages students to share their unique regional perspectives, as in this Election 2012 Election project.

This is a great article about social networking in schools.

http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2010/06/16/03networking.h03.html M. Gottlieb Day School in Jacksonville, Fla. Ms. Tolisano launched her "Around the World With 80 Schools" project with a goal to introduce her school's students to peers in countries around the globe. She built a social-networking site using Ning for teachers from all countries who wanted to participate. Tolisano sets up meetings between classes using Skype, students prepare a list of questions and chat with students in Canada, Finland, New Zealand, and Spain, among a long list of others.

New Milford High School in New Jesrsey has embraced the use of social media. One example of use had students blogging daily during a field trip to Europe to visit Holocaust sites.

This article shows how to engage students and improve learning and comprehension of subject material, without the traditional lecture.  I will need a little latitude with this article and the assignment of social media in the classroom. This article does not focus on the use of social media but explains how systems can be used to prime students prior to coming to class and at the same time inform the instructor what areas students are having difficulties with at the time.  This is great because instructors and students do not have to go over information that has already been learned. Social media can be the vehicles used for this type of communication. 

Examples of how our students are using PLN's and how we need to be thinking the same way that our students are if we want to be effective teachers.

This video did a nice job of showing the often antiquated school system most students function within. I especially enjoyed the inclusion of focusing on student strengths and resisting holding against them what they have not yet learned.

I like the way this video explored how students are taught in school versus how they learn information outside of school. The speaker in the video called this the "learning age" as opposed to the information age because we are learning all the time in everything we do. Yet, education still remains antiquated and traditional when our technology-filled, instant information society is anything but those traditional methods. We need to help students realize that learning is a way of life, not merely a classroom activity. The connectivism ideas permeate our society even beyond education.

Diigo has clear advantages to the individual that needs to store and recall important information. But how can it be used in the classroom? This blog post shares a few options for using Diigo in the classroom. One common problem of student computer use in schools is access to student work from home. Using Diigo, students can bookmark important websites and access them from school, home, the library or any internet-connected computer. Students will always have access to this data. Teachers and students can use the group and list features of Diigo to organize bookmarks on themes or topics. Classes can also collaborate and discuss information within Diigo.

This project involves students using Twitter to address a calculus level problem. In this project, students are asked to define what a limit is in calculus. These are very complex ideas that can be explained in many different ways. Students need to have a solid foundation with these concepts because the rest of the course builds on them. As students were researching their definitions, they tweeted questions live using the class hashtag. This allowed the teacher and other students to answer questions that were raised. Once students had their explanation they had to tweet it out to the whole class. Doing this in 140 characters or less can be very difficult. Once students all had a definition posted, they were able to go in and comment and retweet definition posed by their peers. I like this because it can be applied to many different situations. Students can be asked to define a topic or articulate their understanding of a concept in a clear and concise way. It also allows students to see their peers thinking and expand their own. This has numerous applications for students at numerous levels. I could see myself doing something like this when wrapping up a unit to check for understanding.

SUMMARY: This page found on the Education 2020 Wiki details Connectivism theory and provides resources that help clarify the unique components of this theory compared to others. I found myself exploring the site more deeply and I appreciated the vast amounts of resources and clarifications available on this wiki. Feel free to get lost in it too!

This is a neat little article on connectivism. The best part is that it has a video contained within it by George Siemens that really helps you understand what this idea is getting at.

Connectivism is learning for the digital age. This article does a great job at explaining the principles of connectivism."Learning is a process that occurs within nebulous environments of shifting core elements - not entirely under the control of the individual."

This was a great project introduce students to how to get an internship or full-time job using Klout scores. Students were able engage with other, via social media, and familiarize themselves regarding Klout scores. This was a very enjoyable project and the students were very enthusiastic about the project.

In this scholarly article, Bessenyei discusses the current desire in education to decrease the alienation of traditional schools. He looks at connectivism and network theories as a way to decentralize learning into self-organizing networks. These networks allow information sharing to become more significant as students information sources are varied to include experts as well as other students from multiple institutions.

In this article the author discusses the importance of connectivism that is dependent upon learning in a web 2.0 platform. As the influence of the web has spread so to has the importance the ability to share and distribute information to people all over the world. The premise of this article is that as costs continue to soar in education the connectivism platform offers an alternative way to disseminate learning. The web is now no longer a medium for learning, it is the platform and center for personal learning. One final point that is made is the importance in educating students how to use the available online resources to construct learning for future use because as online resources and CoP's continue to be the primary sources for information it is important to understand how to use and identify these resources for continued learning.

Bessenyei takes an interesting look at the history of elearning as it relates to student learning requirements, societal norms and Connectivism today. The authors perspective on Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 and the policital development of elearning provides the reader with a new lens to look at the variety of social media that is used today.

This long-term project has students creating a blog that serves as their reading response journal for the year. For this assignment, students created a blog to replace their hardcopy notebooks. As students read various things in their English class, they use this one place to do all reading activities. Once they have finished posting, they then receive time to go and comment on other people's posts. This gives students a place to practice their writing skills with an authentic audience. As the year goes on and students get more comfortable with commenting, students could end up having rich conversations based on each other's writing. I like this because it is easy to set up and use for the course of the year. This can be applied to almost any subject area. Even a math teacher could use something like this for students to summarize their learning and bounce ideas off of their peers. The functionality and utility of this project make it a must-have for educators of all subject areas.

This ePals project brings K-8 students together to explore "What's Outside My Window?" Through email interaction, students will build relationships with students in another part of the world and develop a table of similarities and differences. Using photos they have taken, students will create a collaborative presentation to demonstrate their learning.