Group items tagged

This resource defines Personal Learning Networks as a network of connections where people in the groups interact with one another. Karla Guiterrez explains that the connection of individuals are built through the technology that they use. She explains what a PLN does and what it doesn't do for an individual. She also explains how a PLN is important to the individual and to the members of the PLN.

This blog was particularly interesting to me as it not only addresses PLNS, but it also expounds upon common misconceptions and confused terms (i.e. PLN vs PLE). Further, it also gives several suggestions for building a PLN and explains why it is increasingly important.

This article by Wenger and Snyder in the Harvard Business Review is a great reflection of a community of practice (CoP) by the creators themselves in a well-known publication. While the article is in-depth and covers every aspect of a CoP, the included chart may have been the most helpful part of this article to really break down a CoP and the difference between that and other groups.

In this article the author provides an introduction to the concept of communities of practice, describes benefits and utility for business, and strategies for implementation in that context.

The highlight of this article for me is that CoPs have to be organic in their organization and management.

This article describes five major issues in the design and implementation of online communities of practice. The common theme in these five articles is they all focus on the online communication process, and they all try to understand how CoPs, as a reflective tool, can help improve professional practice.

While this article provides examples of communities of practice in action and provides easy to understand definitions it also discusses ways in which CoP's can be sustained. It's one thing to understand their purpose or how to get them started but what do we do once they are up and running? How can we keep a CoP going for say multiple school years rather than diminish over time?

This article describes the features in communities of practice and provides a real life example of how it is used and what it looks like in an educational setting. The article also shows how communities of practice can be extended through the use of new technologies.

This article really captivated me, especially how it started with the vignette about the English teachers collaborating over how to mark their students' papers. I am an English faculty at a university and I have sat through collaborations on such things. I appreciated how such a simple paragraph on this collaboration could embody the three tenets of communities of practice.

The National Council of Teachers of English wrote this briefing with the intent of helping not just English teachers but any educator understand the alignment, implementation, and instructional support of a CoP. The comprehensive but short article is an easy read to get a basic outline of communities of practice.

Since we're getting started with a few social media platforms this week, here are a few more that are out there.

"The basic argument made by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger is that communities of practice are everywhere and that we are generally involved in a number of them - whether that is at work, school, home, or in our civic and leisure interests. In some groups we are core members, in others we are more at the margins." In these communities we share information and resources that further our education.

This article begins by explaining communities of practice. The article cites Wenger who states that a community of practice defines itself among three different dimensions which are what it is about, how it functions, and what capability it has produced. It explains that there are a vast number of different types of communities of practice and that in our daily lives we are a part of a number of them whether a central member or more on the outskirts. Being an educator myself, I really appreciated the final section of the article which explains implications for educators. It explains that learning occurs through interactions with people, we as educators work so that students may become members of communities of practice, and the importance of thinking through the connection between knowledge and practice.

This article is a great starting piece for understanding the theory and basic practices of communities of practice. You get background information on the work of Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger. In addition to this background information on communities of practice the article also discusses some of the issues and implications for educators,.

Crowley writes about how to effectively build a PLN, but goes much more in depth than just listing out three basic steps. She details why PLNs are so beneficial, especially to teachers. I appreciate that she covers the doubts and frustrations someone may have when establishing a PLN and offers ways to help someone from being overwhelmed.

A Professional Learning Network does not need to be a stress inducing task. A PLN should be a changing group of connections that people can join to connect with like minded people who share values, passions, and areas of expertise. When used in education, it connects teachers all across the world and gives it's members with different perspectives on education. PLNs often use technology to drive the connections. When creating or joining a PLN, there are three steps to think about. The first step is to find the professionals. This means that you need to find professional people who share an interest and value with yourself. Once you have found those people, follow them on social media or their blogs to stay connected with them. The second step is to find your niche group. A niche in a PLN is a place where people gather around similar interests or experiences. The final step is to find your PLN buddies and mentors. These are people you have really connected with and who help to expand your thinking. The best part about a PLN is that it is driven by you. You have the ability to adapt your PLN to fit you and your needs. 

As a teacher who is new to PLN and using it as a forum to learn and share ideas, I thought it was a great article to help connect the new user. Like any connection, time and effort are needed to make the relationship work. This article was precise in effective ways to build a community and sustain a PLN. Thanks for sharing.

This Common Sense Media article suggests some of the IOS or Android built-in accessibility features parents and teachers could be using with their special needs children.

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!

This article looked at a Web-based survey and its results in order to make a correlation between gratifications and uses of social networking sites (SNSs) and an individual's political and civic engagement in the real world. This survey targeted the Facebook Groups application to look at how participation compared to offline activities, mainly due to this feature's ability to recruit members, share common issues, and organize off-campus events. The survey identified four main needs for Facebook Groups involvement: 1) socializing, 2) entertainment, 3) self-status seeking, and 4) information. However, as this survey was trying to draw links between online and offline involvement, the need for information was recognized as having the most impact on participation in real-world activities.

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.

This is hands dow my favorite teaching related website. I am very much a visual learner; therefore, the video testimonials posted for most suggested strategies or lessons help me tremendously. One of my most successful experiences with theTeaching Channel came from watching a video title "Socratic Seminar: The 'N-Word.'" It transformed the way I conduct socratic seminars in my classroom.

This is an excellent resource. I am glad to see that there are other visual learners like me. I feel that instructors are always on a search to find new ideas and get their students involved and I love this site. I do not teach, but I work with faculty and resources to better enhance their classroom are always required! I am going to watch some of the videos later to get some ideas!