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Great post. I love all of the visual representations. I enjoyed having those to assist my reading. Connected learning is become much more flexible. In my opinion all of the visuals were much more powerful than the words. To me, they assist my learning in expressing the differences between Cops and connectivism. The last visual of connected learning might be my favorite visual representation that I have seen so far. It describes it perfectly.

I especially liked the "key functional elements" section that outlined necessities within the network. The visual of the network with the peoples' faces made sense and gave a very clear picture of learning connections. Great source.

Here Siemens introduces his reasoning and understanding to connectivism. One fascinating piece that he talks about is how the half-life of learning is shrinking as technology becomes a primary learning tool within people's lives. His premise is based around the idea that we "derive our competence from connections with others". So although we may not all get to experience everything personally, which has been seen as the best way to learn something, now through other people's shared experiences we too can learn at a much quicker rate.

Article discussing connectivism and how it applies to the digital age. Includes 8 principles of connectivism.

Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age is a wonderful article that drills down into the development of Connectivism as the use of technology has challenged many of the theoretical foundations of Behaviorism, Cognitivism and Constructivism. This article discusses the importance of communities of practice in the digital age when learning is rapid pace, dependent on quickly changing information, often in self organized groupings. Siemens provides an overview of the principles and implications of Connectivism as a primary theory for establishing learning groups.

In this article, Siemens discusses the incredible impact that technology has had on several learning theories over the past twenty years. Technology has become such a prominent part of our world and it is "altering (rewiring) our brains." It is an interesting take on the power of technology and how it continues to have a gigantic impact on many learning theories.

Behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism are three theories that attempt to explain how people learn and develop. When these theories were created, digital technology didn't play a role in learning which changes how we explore these theories today. All of these theories agree that knowledge is something to be obtained, but how do people get knowledge in today's society? Connectivism is what describes the new learning environments people are experiencing everyday. It is a series of networks that connect people and information and facilitates the organization and flow of knowledge. It can explained with plumbing. The information and knowledge is the water while the series of pipes it flows through is connectivism. 

This chapter by Hoadley breaks down a community of practice (CoP) and explains the theory behind it as well as well as its history. An interesting piece of the chapter compares a CoP to other groups and how each works a bit differently. It was also interesting to read about how technology is used in successful CoPs.

I learned the feature-based as well as the process based definition of communities of practice. I also learned how we can support a community of practice. It was valuable to learn how technology ties into communities of practices in the form or presentation or communication abilities, integration in content and context, etc. The article mentioned C4P framework, which encouraged me to take a deeper look at the C4P framework.

This is an exhaustive article that covers the definition and history of COPs, thoughts on how to sustain COPs, and ideas on how technology can support and enhance COPs in the 21st century. It is practical, useful, and interesting. While I found it to be perhaps a little too detailed, it was nonetheless a good article.

The concept of communities of practice has been used as both a theory to explain how learning occurs, and a "metaphor for how instruction should take place." From an anthropological view, knowledge is not completely contained within individuals, but is more often found in groups/communities. Knowledge can be "sticky" or "leaky". "Sticky" knowledge is difficult to disseminate, perhaps because it is highly technical, or because the target audience does not absorb it. "Leaky" knowledge is knowledge (like trade secrets) the disseminates despite efforts to keep it secret. Knowledge involves practice in context. One way we learn with situational learning is by peripheral, or tangential, participation. Learners should be allowed to "lurk" before participating, much as beginner social media users do. A knowledge building community and a community are practice are not the same thing. A knowledge-building community seeks to learn and build knowledge, while a community of practice wants to improve some type of work function. The learning may be the same, but the goals are different. Forced knowledge-building communities may never read the stage of community of practice depending on the level of connectedness and peripheral participation. Technology can facilitate communication and collaboration for CoPs.

This explains what a Community of Practice is, it goes into two definitions, features-based and process-based. It also discusses how communities of practice and technology often go hand-in-hand and how this has changed and developed over time.

This chapter provides an overview and history of communities of practice. There is a nice description of the theoretical assumptions underlying its development. The differences of communities of practice and other knowledge communities are explained thoroughly. There is an appreciation for how technology plays a role in today's communities of practice, how it can support it and how it is not less effective than face to face communication. It is explained that the key to a successful community of practice is "connections, conversations, content, and information context."

Christopher Hoadley explains CoPs, focusing on definition and practice. Essentially, Hoadley illustrates that CoPs are informal yet highly connected, constructivist in nature, and supported by technology like social media. He states that technology supports communities of practice by "linking people with similar interests, providing a shared repository of resources, directly supporting communication, and providing awareness of various resources within the information context" (Jonassen & Land, 2012). Additionally, he goes on to express that individual learning fails when it comes to application but that group learning often creates deeper, more meaningful understanding especially when built upon authentic situations.

This article gives two separate definitions for communities of practice, a feature based definition and a process based definition. Between the two it explains how learning through practice can be more beneficial than following a manual or example. It also states how participation is important as well as being viewed as a member of the community of practice. The article then goes into explaining how technology has played a positive role in communities and has helped with communication to allow a community of practice to function even better.

I like this article because it gives teachers a clear definition of what a PLN and how to connect to one. I am new to using social networking professionally so I am interested in learning ways to connect to PLN that would benefit my classroom.

Thomas Whitby is an educator that I have followed on Twitter and consider a valuble member of my PLN. So it is fitting that I would include an article written by Mr. Whitby explaining the purpose of a PLN. Mr. Whitby explains that PLNs use social media and technology to collect, communicate, collaborate and create with like-minded individuals. Unlike traditional professional development sessions, PLNs can take place any time and anywhere through the use of the WWW. Each PLN is uniques and serves its own purpose and each member is a potential source of information. Mr. Whitby concludes his article with information on how to build a PLN and links to PLN resources.

This article gives the definition of a PLN and answers the question of why they are important. It also talks about potential barriers, this is important! It also has links to other resources for PLNs.

This blog post thoroughly defines PLNs, even addressing the debate over its acronym. Is it professional or personal learning networks? This post settles on a happy medium: personalized learning network. This entry goes beyond the definitions as it addresses both the barriers to PLNs and what can be gained from them. It also offers suggestions on how to build a PLN and helpful links.

A great article about the connectivist theory. It is very brief but it is very clear and concise. There are many examples of Web 2.0 tools that people use to learn and share.

This article describes connectivism as a "learning theory" that uses the internet in multiple ways to help people learn and share with one another. It discusses tools such as social media sites, YouTube, email, discussion forums, and many others as ways that people can share new information with one another through the internet. After explaining this, it explains how teachers can use connectivism within the classroom to guide students in the right direction for their own learning. The article says it can help encourage students to find information on their own and help them learn to explain it themselves.

Kathleen, what a great summary of connectivism! I really like that it explains how connectivism could be seen or fostered within a classroom. Great read!

learning-theories.com was very helpful to me in our 501-505 courses. I think this is a very helpful resource on connectivism!

The authors in this article define what connectivism is and the key features of connectivism. Connectivism "is a learning theory that explains how Internet technology have created new opportunities for people to learn and share information across the World Wide Web and among themselves." People can use email, social networks, YouTube, web browsers, etc. to learn and share information with other people. A connected community is formed with shared information.

Connectivism is a theory that explains how connecting with other people using the internet and technological tools creates a positive and effective learning environment. The teacher is a guide for learning while the students work collaboratively to find information for their learning. This theory is often used in online distance learning.

Connectivism is a theory that explains how connecting with other people using the internet and technological tools creates a positive and effective learning environment. The teacher is a guide for learning while the students work collaboratively to find information for their learning. This theory is often used in online distance learning.

This is where I like to start before I dive deeper. This is a down and dirty, concise explanation of the connectivism theory. It is based in the belief that Internet technologies provide opportunities for people to learn and share info among themselves online. It explains how the teachers guide students to information and then students seek answers and create ways to share their knowledge online. Communities and peer networks often form as a result of this process. It mentions massive open online courses (MOOCs) which will help as we dive deeper into models of connectivism.

@mskmjohnson Great article! I particularly like the focus on a CoP vs. a team and the practical information on maintaining a CoP

This in-depth overview discusses CoPs covers their roles in organizations like other articles, but it also talks about where the can be found and their differences than teams, businesses, networks, etc- offering a definition more by what it is not. The stages of development image helped me better understand the foundation of a CoP.

Etienne Wenger explains the importance of Communities of Practice. Wenger states that communities are everywhere and most people are involved in a community of practice. Communities of practice are different than a community of interest or geographical communities because of three elements. The three elements are what it is about, how it functions, and what capability it has produced. The community of practice can be within businesses, across business units, or even across company boundaries. All "communities of practice move through various stages of development characterized by different levels of interaction among the members and different kinds of activities."

Article by Wegner explaining CoPs that has a couple of great graphics of what it means to be in a CoP, how to develop them, and how they relate to organizations

I really like how this article connects the idea of CoP to things other than education. It is a 21st century skill that we can teach our students and have them continue to use even after their formal education is complete.

Sometimes we teachers get ourselves stuck on the idea that we are clearly the only profession out there in the world when we are researching topics like CoPs. However, this isn't the case, and I really appreciate that this resource outlines the idea of communities of practice as far reaching and for more than just teachers. It comes back to the community. Without the community, there is no practice.

This article goes beyond the basic definitions of CoPs as it provides where communities can be found and the importance of CoPs to organizations and offers suggestions to develop and nurture CoPs.

For me it is easy to think of CoPs in education but I liked looking at them in other organizations. Thinking about how to keep them going was interesting. Things like legitimizing participation seems obvious but can really make or break a CoP.

This article begins by describing three different communities of practice, but not how one would traditionally think of them. A "community of practice" for myself on a personal level would not necessarily have to be the other middle school teachers in my building, but could involve the elementary art teacher I am friends with. The more I read about these communities of practice the more they are sounding like "like-minded people who talk about stuff they have in common." There is a neat little graph describing five stages of development of these communities.

This page offers different wording and definitions of PLNs.

This article talks about Communities of Practice and how they differ from PLN. COP have a centralized theme, how they function depend on the sophistication and functionality of the group as a whole.