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Personal Learning Network for educators in action. Interesting example of a living, breathing learning network in use today by teachers from the United States to Sri Lanka and Greece, 13,576 members strong.

A great collection of blogs, videos, resource (including an alphabetical list of Twitter Hashtags) for education.

This is a great PLN for educators. I found videos and blog postings that were extremely interesting. What a cool resource!

I stumbled across the video that a former student created that shows the differences of CoPs, Connectivism, and PLEs. What is cool is that the author uses only pictures, music, and written text to define them - no dialogue.

I watched this because it was made by a former student. It was nice because it was different - the no words was a nice touch. I wasn't really a fan of all the images and I think they only made sense because I am watching this last. If I watched this first, I am not sure I would be much wiser. Not a criticism of the video per se, just didn't do a lot to further my rather limited knowledge. Sorry Matt! ;-)

I watched the video and now need to go improve my presentation. The student did a great job of finding images that exemplified the topic. Even knowing this was for module 2, I kept waiting for words, not because I didn't get the message but I think people (teachers and students alike) are just so used to having words to rely on.

Yes, Xtranormal was bought out, but it looks like it may come back in a different form.

English Language Learners can find pictures by category, then see and hear English words

I like this one! Have you seen the Visual Thesaurus? It's also very cool and useful for both ELL and native English language learners: http://www.visualthesaurus.com

Susan, thanks for the reference; I like that one, too!

The David Rumsey Map Collection is a great resource for historical maps, and the Georeferencer feature is a cool way to overlay historic maps over a modern map and adjust the opacity to compare the two.

Teachers often face the question, "When are we going to use this?" This project is great because it gets students answering that question themselves. Students take a picture of something they see in the world and write their own math problem relating to the picture. This gets students thinking about why math is useful and pushes their problem-solving ability by making them formulate a good question. Once the student okays the project with the teacher, they are free to post with the class Instagram tag where other students can engage in a conversation about the problem. This is a great way to get students to engage in practical mathematics and it is easy to organize because it is almost entirely student-driven. This is a cool project that could be running year round. I could see myself setting this up and building a real-world problem bank with my classes.

Great templates to customize content. You can add video or images and text is read aloud. Possible tool to customize content for ESL learners

This is a video discussion as part of a online course on connectivism.  Taken by itself, it is a little obscure, but taken in the context of EDTECH543 and in an attempt to understand connectivism, it was immensely helpful to me.  The video centers around the nine dots puzzle and the how the solution to it is a perfect example of connectivism.

Thanks for sharing this video. It made me understand that even if we think that at the beginning we are not going to need to get connected to a certain "point", you never know if in the future you are going to need information/knowledge from that source.

I really like this 'outside the lines' way of looking at connectivism. There is so much information out there that we really might not need at a certain point in time but it is still there and can be accessed. It's interesting to think that we might be that point for others, we are still there but they don't need what we have right now.

In this TEDx talk by George Siemens he discusses connections. He begins to discuss this through his own personal background. He pushes inherently through his talk for a change in education. He pushes that the importance of education is connectedness and implies that education currently is inhibiting this connectedness. He says that many platforms for students to be connected are often locked down which I can also say I have found to be true. He parts the talk that he believes the primary task of education is connectedness and that we need to collapse education down to this to cause our students to become better members of society.

Great resource! I like his comment that transparency makes us all instructors and the concept of bringing it all down to connections and connectedness.

I think Tim said it best up there... it's best to get information from a key contributor to connectivism. We cannot expect our students not to connect. We are lucky to be where we are in education right now.

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 study examines how adults learn from one another within a workplace environment. As the article highlights: "[Informal] learning at work constitutes a large part of the learning undertaken by adults . . ." The article determined that large worksites afforded a range and variety of communities of practice, informal learning opportunities, and types of learning within a worksite. However, very often, the people we learn from at work are not necessarily recognized as having a role that traditionally promotes learning.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article and I found it logical that in the example of the Tiling Teachers, the article mentioned that they considered each other peers on the same level which would facilitate the learning that takes place within that group. I wonder how this learning would contrast from feedback or learning taking place from students in the class or even a superior like a Vice President of a program or a Senior Instructional Designer?

This was a great article and got me thinking a little deeper about communities of practice. So far this week, my studies have led to articles and examples of communities of practice in a learning or educational environment. I love how the focus was really on practices of communities of practice in the workplace. It was cool to realize that this process begins way before the class even begins. Thanks for sharing.